Nativity - Passion - Resurrection

Jesus

Not only do I find Geza Vermes's Jesus plausible, but I have come to feel that there is an obvious kinship between kindly, humorous, anti-dogmatic Vermes and the Galilean prophet whom he has so frequently brought to life for us

Geza Vermes was born in Hungary in 1924. From 1957 to 1991 he taught in at the Universities of Newcastle and Oxford. Professor Vermes is the editor of The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (1997) and author of The Changing Faces of Jesus (2000), The Authentic Gospel of Jesus (2003) and The Passion (2005). He lives in Oxford.

The Nativity, Passion and Resurrection are the three defining episodes in the life of Jesus, forming the foundations of the Christian tradition. But what is the truth behind these epoch-making events? 
 
Geza Vermes is one of the world's most respected bibilical historians. Bringing together his three acclaimed works on the life of Jesus in one volume, this book examines the circumstances surrounding the miraculous birth of Jesus, from the prophetic star to Herod's murderous decree; looks afresh at the arrest, trial and execution of this Jewish charismatic; and finally analyses Jesus' crucifixion and the subsequent sightings of him by his disciples. 
 
Drawing on the New Testament, Jewish documents and sources from classical literature and history, these works separate myth from fact to penetrate the deeper meanings of the story of Christ.

The miraculous discovery and true significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls

The Story of the Scrolls

From the world's leading Dead Sea Scrolls scholar, Geza Vermes' The Story of the Scrolls: The Miraculous Discovery and True Significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls is an ideal introduction to understanding these ancient documents. 
 
 The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Qumran, between 1947 and 1956, was one of the greatest archaeological finds of all time. Written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, and hidden in caves by an ancient Jewish sect, these mysterious manuscripts revolutionized our understanding of the Bible, of Judaism and the early Christian world. 
 
 Geza Vermes's English translations brought these extraordinary documents to thousands, and his life has been inextricably interwoven with the scrolls for over sixty years. 
 
 In The Story of the Scrolls, Vermes relates the controversial story of their discovery and publication around the world, revealing cover-ups, blunders and academic in-fighting, but also the passion and dedication of many of those involved. He shares what he has learned about the scrolls and, evaluating passages from them, gives his views on their true significance and what they can teach us, as well as those areas where scholarly consensus has not yet been reached. 
 
 'The world's leading Gospel scholar' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;The Times 
 
 'Vermes has the rare gift of wearing his immense scholarship lightly' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;David Goldberg, Independent 
 
 Geza Vermes is director of the Forum for Qumran Research at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. His books, published by Penguin, include The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English and The Changing Faces of Jesus as well as the 'Jesus' trilogy: Nativity, Passion and Resurrection.

Vermes has the rare gift of wearing his immense scholarship lightly

Geza Vermes's books include The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English and The Changing Faces of Jesus as well as the 'Jesus' trilogy: Nativity, Passion and Resurrection. He is Professor Emeritus of Jewish Studies at the University of Oxford.

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Qumran, Palestine, in 1947 was one of the greatest archaeological finds of all time. Written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, and hidden in caves by an ancient Jewish sect, these mysterious manuscripts revolutionized our understanding of the Bible, of Judaism and the early Christian world. 
 
Geza Vermes is the world's leading Dead Sea Scrolls scholar, whose English translations brought these extraordinary documents to thousands, and whose life has been inextricably interwoven with the scrolls for over sixty years. In this illuminating book he relates the controversial story of their discovery and publication around the world, revealing cover-ups, blunders and academic in-fighting, but also the passion and dedication of many of those involved. He shares what he has learned about the scrolls and, evaluating passages from them, gives his views on their true significance and what they can teach us, as well as those areas where scholarly consensus has not yet been reached. 
 
Few scholars have been as closely associated with the Dead Sea Scrolls as Vermes. Writing with candour and unique authority, he has created an ideal introduction to understanding these miraculous documents.

The Resurrection

Geza Vermes's The Resurrection presents a comprehensive account of exactly what the earliest Christian sources report about the aftermath of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus. 
 
 The story of Christ's crucifixion and subsequent resurrection is the rock of faith on which Christianity is founded. But on what evidence is the most miraculous phenomenon in religious history based? 
 
 World-famous biblical scholar Geza Vermes has studied all the evidence that still remains, over two thousand years after Jesus Christ was reported to have risen from the dead. Examining the Jewish Bible, the New Testament and other accounts left to us, as well as contemporary attitudes to the afterlife, he takes us through each episode with a historian's focus: the crucifixion, the treatment of the body, the statements of the women who found the empty tomb, and the visions of Christ by his disciples. 
 
 Unravelling the true meaning conveyed in the Gospels, the Acts and St Paul, Vermes shines a new light on the developing faith in the risen Christ among the first followers of Jesus. 
 
 'The greatest Jesus scholar of his generation' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Sunday Telegraph 
 
 Geza Vermes is director of the Forum for Qumran Research at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. His books, published by Penguin, include The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English, The Story of the Scrolls and The Changing Faces of Jesus as well as the 'Jesus' trilogy: Nativity, Passion and Resurrection.

Geza Vermes was born in Hungary in 1924. From 1957 to 1991 he taught at the Universities of Newcastle and Oxford. Professor Vermes is the editor of The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (1997) and author of The Changing Faces of Jesus (2000), The Authentic Gospel of Jesus (2003), The Passion (2005), and The Nativity (2006). He lives in Oxford.

The story of Christ&rsquo;s crucifixion and subsequent resurrection is the rock of faith on which Christianity is founded. But on what evidence is the most miraculous phenomenon in religious history based? 
 
World-famous Biblical scholar Geza Vermes has studied all the evidence that still remains, over two thousand years after Jesus Christ was reported to have risen from the dead. Examining the Jewish Bible, the New Testament and other accounts left to us, as well as contemporary attitudes to the afterlife, he takes us through each episode with a historian&rsquo;s focus: the crucifixion, the treatment of the body, the statements of the women who found the empty tomb, and the visions of Christ by his disciples. Unravelling the true meaning conveyed in the Gospels, the Acts and St Paul, Vermes shines new light on the developing faith in the risen Christ among the first followers of Jesus.

History and Legend

The Nativity

A brilliant, controversial new look at the Christmas story.

The Nativity is at the very heart of the Christian tradition. But what truth lies behind the Christmas story as we know it? Where does history end and legend begin? 
 Here Geza Vermes, the world’s most respected Biblical historian, examines what really happened when, according to Church liturgy, Jesus was born on the 25 December. Taking us through the main events surrounding the Nativity: the prophetic star, the virgin and the holy spirit, the journey of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, the miraculous birth in a stable, the arrival of the magi and the murderous decree of King Herod, Vermes puts the story in its real historical context. He sifts through all the evidence – examining the New Testament Infancy Gospels of Matthew and Luke as well as parallel Jewish documents and sources from classical literature and history – to separate morsels of fact from centuries of legendary accretions. 
 The Nativity gives us a clearer idea than ever before of what belongs to real history and what derives from man’s hopeful and creative religious imagination, penetrating the deeper meanings of the New Testament story that evolved into the festival we call Christmas.

In a similar format to the astonishingly successful The Passion Professor Geza Vermes now turns his attention to the other key festival in the Christian calendar - Christmas. Vermes articulately and controversially disentangles the Christmas story as we know it, relating it to prophecies in the Old Testament and also to later Christian folklore, putting the nativity into its true historical context. This will be required reading for anyone wanting to know the true story behind the Nativity.

Who's Who in the Age of Jesus

'The greatest Jesus scholar of his generation' Sunday Telegraph

Geza Vermes was born in Hungary in 1924. From 1957 to 1991 he taught in at the Universities of Newcastle and Oxford. Professor Vermes is the author of The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (1997), The Changing Faces of Jesus (2000), The Authentic Gospel of Jesus (2003) and The Passion (2005). He lives near Oxford.

The books of the New Testament are some of the most extraordinary documents ever created - brilliant, vivid works central to the lives of many millions of readers over the centuries. Yet, the picture they give of Jesus' world is a very partial one. Written thirty to eighty years after the events they describe and with very specific doctrinal aims they addressed a Greek-speaking audience when Christianity was at its most precarious. Geza Vermes, one of the world's foremost biblical scholars, is uniquely positioned to guide the reader through the many conundrums presented by the New Testament. Who's Who in the Age of Jesus is an ambitious and enjoyable attempt to sift through all the sources for the period to create biographies of the major (and some fascinating minor) figures from Jesus' era. The book allows readers to understand a Jewish, Roman and Hellenistic world crowded with explosive, mutually antagonistic groups - a world which would give rise both to a new Judaism and ultimately to Christianity. From detailed, convincing portraits of Jesus, John the Baptist, Pontius Pilate, Herod and other key New Testament figures to the Jewish and Roman leaders like Hillel, Caiaphas, Augustus, Vespasian and Titus, hardly or not at all mentioned in the Gospels or the Acts of the Apostles, Geza Vermes' illustrated Who's Who will throw much fresh light on the age of Jesus and provoke innumerable arguments and discussions.

The Passion

Geza Vermes was born in Hungary in 1924. From 1957 to 1991 he taught in at the Universities of Newcastle and Oxford. Professor Vermes is the editor of The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (1997) and author of The Changing Faces of Jesus (2000) and The Authentic Gospel of Jesus (2003). He lives in Oxford.

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.

The Authentic Gospel of Jesus

'The greatest Jesus scholar of his generation' Sunday Telegraph

In The Authentic Gospel of Jesus, renowned biblical scholar Geza Vermes distils a lifetime's knowledge to examine every saying attributed to Jesus and return to the true teachings of the man behind the messiah. 
 
Who was the real Jesus? What was the original message of the charismatic Jewish healer and moralist who changed the world? 
 
 There can be no doubt that Jesus, 'a religious genius' as Geza Vermes describes him, lived and taught in Palestine some 2000 years ago. The influence he has had is incalculable. How though can we distinguish between the doctrines shaped to the needs of the burgeoning Christian church and the original views laid out by Jesus himself? How can we dig back through the additions, misinterpretations and confusions of later writers and two millennia of tradition to get back to the authentic gospel of Jesus? 
 In The Authentic Gospel of Jesus, Vermes subjects all the sayings of Jesus to brilliantly informed scrutiny. The result is a book of unique value and novelty -scraping aside the accretions of centuries to come as close as we can hope to be to the true Jesus. 
 'The greatest Jesus scholar of his generation' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Sunday Telegraph 
 
'A pleasure to read from cover to cover' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Literary Review 
 
 'One of the most commonsensical, wise books on the Bible ever published. Nobody can fail to be impressed by the magisterial scholarship and knowledge' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Daily Express 
 
 'Vermes has made his fine scholarship wonderfully accessible to the general reader' Karen Armstrong, Sunday Times 
 
 'A truly fascinating book' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Independent on Sunday 
 
 Geza Vermes is director of the Forum for Qumran Research at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. His books, published by Penguin, include The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English, The Story of the Scrolls and The Changing Faces of Jesus as well as the 'Jesus' trilogy: Nativity, Passion and Resurrection.

Geza Vermes was born in Hungary in 1924. From 1957 to 1991 he taught in at the Universities of Newcastle and Oxford. Professor Vermes is the author of The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (1997) and The Changing Faces of Jesus (2000). He lives in Oxford.

There can be no doubt that Jesus, 'a religious genius' as Geza Vermes describes him, lived and taught in Palestine some 2000 years ago. The influence he has had is incalculable. How though can we distinguish between the doctrines shaped to the needs of the burgeoning Christian church and the original views laid out by Jesus himself? How can we dig back through the additions, misinterpretations and confusions of later writers and two millennia of tradition to get back to the authentic gospel of Jesus? In his new book, Vermes subjects all the sayings of Jesus to brilliantly informed scrutiny. The result is a book of unique value and novelty--scraping aside the accretions of centuries to come as close as we can hope to be to the true Jesus.

The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English

Geza Vermes was born in Hungary in 1924.  He studied in Budapest and Louvain.  He was the first Professor of Jewish Studies at Oxford.  His other books published by Penguin are The Changing Faces of Jesus and The Authentic Gospel of Jesus.

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Judaean desert between 1947 and 1956 transformed our understanding of the Hebrew Bible, early Judaism and the origins of Christianity. These extraordinary manuscripts appear to have been hidden in the caves at Quumran by members of the Essene community, a Jewish sect in existence before and during the time of Jesus. Some sixty years after the Scrolls' first discovery, this revised and much expanded edition of The Dead Sea Scrolls in English crowns a lifetime of research by the great Qumran scholar Geza Vermes. 
 
As well as superb translations of all non-biblical texts sufficiently well preserved to be rendered into English, there are also a number of previously unpublished texts, and a new preface. 
 
Since its first publication in 1962, The Dead Sea Scrolls in English has established itself as the standard English translation of the non-Biblical Qumran Scrolls and as giving an astonishing insight to the organization, customs, history and beliefs of the community responsible for them. This edition will contain new material, together with extensive new introductory material and notes.

The Changing Faces of Jesus

Geza Vermes was brought up in a Christian family, ordained a Catholic priest, and subsequently reverted to his Jewish roots. His work on the historical figure of Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls led to his appointment as Professor of Jewish Studies atOxford, where he is now Professor Emeritus. He is the author of THE COMPLETE DEAD SEA SCROLLS IN ENGLISH, which has sold in the region of half a million copies in Penguin to date.

During his life Jesus did not view himself as divine, nor did his disciples. In THE CHANGING FACES OF JESUS the great scholar Vermes works back through successively earlier accounts of the life of Christ to finally reveal the true, historical figureof Jesus hidden beneath the Gospels: a Palestinian charismatic convinced he had an essential role to play in bringing about the kingdom of God.

Geza Vermes

The subject is not exactly the Christian Church, which makes an appearance effectively only half way through the text; it is Jesus - what he was, what he said he was, and what Christians said about him after his crucifixion. For anyone puzzling over such questions, this is an exciting and challenging port of call, sweeping aside much of the fuzzy thinking and special pleading that bedevils the study of sacred scripture ... [a] courteously expressed and witty little book

This book represents the summation of [Vermes's] thinking about the early history of Christianity. It is a challenging and engaging book that sets out to retrace the route by which a Jewish preacher in 1st-century Israel came to be declared as consubstantial and co-equal with the omnipotent, omniscient only God

A major contribution to our understanding of the historical Jesus

A magnum opus of early Christian history and one of the year's most significant titles

Geza Vermes

Praise for Christian Beginnings

The subject is not exactly the Christian Church, which makes an appearance effectively only half way through the text; it is Jesus - what he was, what he said he was, and what Christians said about him after his cru ...

This book represents the summation of [Vermes's] thinking about the early history of Christianity. It is a challenging and engaging book that sets out to retrace the route by which a Jewish preacher in 1st-century I ...

A major contribution to our understanding of the historical Jesus

The subject is not exactly the Christian Church, which makes an appearance effectively only half way through the text; it is Jesus - what he was, what he said he was, and what Christians said about him after his cru ...

This book represents the summation of [Vermes's] thinking about the early history of Christianity. It is a challenging and engaging book that sets out to retrace the route by which a Jewish preacher in 1st-century I ...

A major contribution to our understanding of the historical Jesus

The subject is not exactly the Christian Church, which makes an appearance effectively only half way through the text; it is Jesus - what he was, what he said he was, and what Christians said about him after his cru ...

This book represents the summation of [Vermes's] thinking about the early history of Christianity. It is a challenging and engaging book that sets out to retrace the route by which a Jewish preacher in 1st-century I ...

A major contribution to our understanding of the historical Jesus

Books by Geza Vermes

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