The Passion

by Géza Vermes

In his new book distinguished Jesus scholar Geza Vermes explains the true story behind The Passion of Christ and the recent, highly controversial, film. Vital reading for anyone wanting to know the truth behind the hyperbole Vermes's book is an intelligent and fascinating breakdown of the evidence of the Trial of Jesus and an authentic version of Stations of the Cross. A general introduction dealing with the Jewish court system, the Romen legal procedure and parallel court cases aims to provide a context to The Passion and a greater understanding of Biblical society. Written by the greatest Jesus scholar of his generation this will be required reading for anyone wanting to know the truth.

Genres: Christianity, Religion, Nonfiction, History

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 31, 2005

About the author

Géza Vermes was a Jewish Hungarian scholar and writer on religious history, particularly Jewish and Christian.

Reviews

[Mike Hinkle]

Without question, Geza Vermes is one of the most respected biblical scholars writing today. This book is a useful primer. I was disappointed that some important aspects of the passion narratives were ignored. For example, all the gospel writers agree that Jesus was executed as part of a group. The significance (or lack thereof) was not addressed. Furthermore, the synoptics note that Simon carried "the cross" while John makes a point of saying Jesus carried his own cross. I believe these point--and others--should have been discussed

[Samantha]

Great historian learn so much from the author

[Nick]

Until his recent death, Vermes was one of the leading biblical scholars with an international reputation. He bestrode the Jewish and Christian religions, and was an expert on the Dead Sea scrolls. This is a dryish scholarly account comparing the 4 New Testament synoptic gospels and explaining how they were biased and re-cast from the original account (which may have only been transmitted orally) so that the Jews were blamed for Jesus' death.

In particular, the author suggests that the gospels aim to make the passion story acceptable to the Greco-Roman world at the expense of the Jews. In this connection the gospels cast Pilate as a weak but restraining influence, overcome by the will of the Jewish mob, rather than the violent man he historically was. The context for the gospel writing, which I had not realised, is that they were written after many of Paul's epistles when he (and whoever helped him) was working up the Greek and Roman churches.

Anyone of a religious bent will find this book interesting, and it should deepen their understanding rather than disturb their faith.

[Dawngordon]

The man has to realize that the reason why the synoptics have different sort of sentences is not all writers will write the same thing! Even news writers of the day, you will get the same story, but one news team might have another sentence that someone said and so forth. It does not mean anyone of them are inaccurate. I am dissecting his off base theories.

[Penny]

read in english, again helps to understand the tiemline of the Synoptic gospels and the importance of John's timings of the Passion. OPens doors to the importance of Paul and his teaching as regards early Christianity