Jesus on Trial: A Study of the Gospels

by Gerard S. Sloyan

How did Jesus, a much-loved and highly respected Jewish teacher, get sentenced to death as a criminal? The questions of students and scholars about the actual circumstances, legal situation, and subsequent development of the Passion Narratives are here answered in Sloyan's second edition of this reliable resource, first published by Fortress Press in 1973. This second edition includes additional text, updated bibliography and notes, and a new preface.

168 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Gerard S. Sloyan is Professor Emeritus of Religion at Temple University and Visiting Professor of Religion and Religious Education at the Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. He is author of many volumes, including The Commentary on the New Lectionary (1975), John in the Interpretation series (1992), The Crucifixion of Jesus (1995), and Preaching from the Lectionary (2004). (Barnes and Noble)

Reviews

[Peter Mead · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book promises more than it delivers. It begins and ends with a call to the church to stop preaching the gospel accounts of the trials of Jesus so that the Jews get blamed for killing the Messiah. In between it is a higher critical analysis of the four gospels that seeks to show that they are mostly unhistorical. I was hoping to see good scholarship that would help me understand the uniqueness of each gospel. However, the book is filled with logical inconsistencies that reduce the value of the resource considerably.