The Authentic Gospel of Jesus [Paperback]

Geza Vermes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2005

In his new book, acclaimed religious scholar Geza Vermes subjects all the sayings of Jesus to brilliantly informed scrutiny. Profoundly aware of the limits of our knowledge but immersed in what we do have—both the “official” gospels and associated Jewish and early Christian texts—Vermes sieves through every quote ascribed to Jesus to let the reader get as close as possible to the charismatic Jewish healer and moralist who changed the world. The result is a book that creates a revolutionary and unexpected picture of Jesus—scraping aside the accretions of centuries to approach as close as we can hope to his true teaching.

Editorial Reviews

Review

With all the weight of a lifetime of scholarship, Vermes places the recorded words in their Jewish, first-century context. -- Independent on Sunday

Wonderfully accessible and open-minded... This book will demand that Christians rethink their faith. -- The Sunday Times, London

About the Author

Geza Vermes’s pioneering work on the Dead Sea Scrolls and the historical Jesus led to his appointment as the first professor of Jewish studies at Oxford University, where he is now professor emeritus. He is the author of several books, including The Authentic Gospel of Jesus.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (February 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 014100360X
• ISBN-13: 978-0141003603
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #695,095 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating look at the words of Jesus, December 16, 2005

By 

call me The Avi ("In my dreams I live in California......") - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Authentic Gospel of Jesus (Paperback)

I recently purchased this book, and found it to be a very interesting read. Geza Vermes is both an erudite and compelling author, and I found his view of Jesus (both as a man and the founder of a world religion) enlightening and thought-provoking. I found it surprising that another reviewer found his work to contain a "hidden academic bias." A look at Mr. Vermes resume' (contained on the first page of the book) clearly shows that he was a professor of Jewish Studies in England for over 30 years, so there's really nothing hidden about it. And, it's his academic background which gives his conclusions such great authority. While some may disagree with those conclusions, Mr. Vermes clearly tells us which texts he used as his sources, and draws no conclusions which he cannot back up using those same texts. He leaves no doubt that his scholarship is solid. He places Jesus firmly in the context of his time, and shows where his message and the later work of his disciples diverged. Nevertheless, his respect for his subject is obvious -- the "Authentic Gospel" follows Mr. Vermes four previous books about Jesus, and his stated purpose here of separating the true words of Jesus from later false additions is an admirable one. As a reader, I didn't agree with all of his conclusions, but Mr. Vermes certainly did his best to raise levels of reasonable doubt, so to speak. Whether one agrees or disagrees with him, the book is enlightening, and will cause you to think more about Jesus, what his message truly is, and how later thinkers may have diluted or misineterpreted it. It's an enjoyable read, and I intend to purchase more of Mr. Vermes books in the future.

42 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Words of Christ In Red, January 27, 2007

By 

Etienne ROLLAND-PIEGUE (Paris, France) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Authentic Gospel of Jesus (Paperback)

Many Bibles printed in the US are red letter editions. They have the words of Christ printed in red. Some people believe that these words are more important than the words in black. Others point out that every word in the Bible matters and that although the Epistles in the New Testament do not contain the words Jesus spoke during his earthly ministry, what Paul wrote are still the words of Christ.

Historians approach the issue from a different angle. For them, analyzing the teachings that Jesus left is the only way to portray his true figure. The words of wisdom that Jesus spoke were remembered by his disciples and were passed on until the writing of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. The sentences placed on his lips may not have been the exact words that he uttered (Jesus spoke in Aramaic, whereas the Gospels were written in Greek), but they are most likely to reflect the genuine message preached and practiced by him. Upon close scrutiny, it is possible to distinguish the sayings that can be attributed to the historical Jesus and those that may reflect later additions or commentary. The approach here is philological, exegetical and historical as opposed to theological.

The Authentic Gospel of Jesus applies such a method of analysis to those words in red. Every saying attributed to Jesus in the three Synoptic Gospels is given close scrutiny in this book. Geza Vermes divide these statements into nine categories: narratives and commands, controversy stories, words of wisdom, parables, biblical quotations, prayers, son of Man sayings, sayings about the Kingdom of God, and eschatological rules of behavior. The succinct commentary attached to each quotation attempts to distinguish the diverse levels of superimposed meanings with a view to establish, if possible, their primary setting and significance in the life of Jesus.

The book is presented as a companion volume to The Changing Faces of Jesus, a previous book that the author wrote to take stock of years of scholarship on texts written at or around the time the Gospels were composed. The author compares this previous essay to "an archaeological excavation performed on literary sources", in which he digs through the layers of interpretation that obfuscate the true figure of the historical Jesus. The dig started with the top layer, the most recent of apostolic commentary contained in the Gospel of John or the epistles of Paul, and descended as it were to the authentic Jesus as revealed through the Synoptic Gospels, combined with what we know from the Jewish world in which he lived.

This new volume is more like a museum display of all the items that were found as a result from this excavation. Each item is displayed in an individual showcase and classified into files and categories. People may or may not agree with the interpretation given by the curator, but the exhibition helps give new depth and significance to those words printed in red.

68 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary!, January 6, 2005

By 

Thomas (France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Authentic Gospel of Jesus (Hardcover)

This is a wonderful book, all the individual sayings of Jesus in the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) are studied one by one in the context of the Judaism of the time, and comparisons are made with the Qumran texts, the Gospel of Thomas, and the Old Testament. The figure of the historical Jesus that emerges is a very credible one: Jesus had an eschatological hope of an imminent coming of the Kingdom of God. After his death, the disciples' experience of his resurrection led to the awaiting of his second coming, the Parousia, with a Final Judgment. Vermes, writing from a Jewish perspective, sees Jesus as the greatest of all Jewish prophets.