The Authentic Gospel of Jesus: Amazon.co.uk: Geza Vermes: Books

Frequently Bought Together

+

+

Price For All Three: �18.97

Show availability and shipping details

This item: The Authentic Gospel of Jesus by Geza Vermes
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
The Resurrection by Geza Vermes
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
The Nativity: History and Legend by Geza Vermes
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Resurrection

by Geza Vermes

4.0 out of 5 stars (2) �5.99

The Changing Faces of Jesus

by Geza Vermes

3.5 out of 5 stars (4) �6.99

The Nativity: History and Legend

by Geza Vermes

4.3 out of 5 stars (3) �5.99

The Passion

by Geza Vermes

4.5 out of 5 stars (2)

Jesus the Jew (SCM Classics)

by Geza Vermes

4.0 out of 5 stars (2) �9.99

› Explore similar items

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested in These Sponsored Links

(What is this?)

Bible Summer Sale

www.WesleyOwen.com/Bargain_Bibles UpTo 50% Off Over 1,000s Bibles Free Delivery - Orders over �5.00

Kingdom of God Resources

www.KingdomReady.org The Kingdom of God is not here yet Free online video, mp3s, & articles

Christian Books & CDs

www.KevinMayhew.com Extensive range of Christian books Free UK delivery over �30

Product Description

Product Description
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.

About the Author
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.

Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
Narratives and commands occur in those Gospel passages which quote direct speech by Jesus when reporting episodes in his life. Read the first page

Explore More
Concordance

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

(What's this?)

Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.

jesus(1)

See all 11 tags...

Customer Reviews

4 Reviews

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

Average Customer Review

3.5 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Create your own review

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars interesting but biased, 25 May 2005

By	Joanpau Rubies (London UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is an intelligent and well written book which dissects the synoptic gospels (Mark, Luke and Matthew) in order to find a 'real' Jesus behind the Christian writing. That is to say, the author wants to take Christianity out of the Christian sources, to reveal a Jewish prophet with no claims to divinity. In this sceptical attitude, he goes beyond what other sholars writing in a similar vein, like Sanders and Ehrman, have recently done, Vermes with less balance and success in my view. Whilst others have tried to work with the narrative ethos of each of the synoptic gospels in order to interpret particular passages, Vermes has a better idea: destroy the narratives as they exist, to reveal a new genuine gospel by a 'real' Jesus. Passage by passage, eliminate any little sentence or word that smacks of Christianity as an implausible accretion - do not concede the possibility that some passages might be both authentic and useful for Christian doctrines. The flaw with this method of deconstruction is that it narrows what Jesus was to what Vermes, with his own bias, imagines a Galilean Jew could have been. More damaging, the transition from Vermes' purely Jewish Jesus who never intended to preach to the gentiles, to the resurrected Jesus perceived by those Jewish Christians (like James, the brother of Jesus, or Peter) who then started the Christian movement amongst both Jews and eventually gentiles, is unexplained. (I am leaving Paul, another Jew, out of this argument, but of course he was crucial in spreading the new Jewish sect of Christianity to the gentiles, introducing some hotly contested adaptations). That is to say, with his pruning Vermes takes away some of the elements that make the emergence of a Jewish Christian sect understandable. Having said this, I am not questioning the now very old principle that the gospels are not accurare historical records. It is well established amongst scholars that the Jesus of the gospels was an interpretation and that the narratives were written by devout men who combined various sources and probably never knew Jesus directly. In their views they were influenced by many events, from the death of Jesus to the destruction of the second temple. It is therefore clear that much of what the synoptic gospels (let alone John) contain can not be taken at face value, as they even contradict each other on points of history. Breaking down the narratives passage by passage has some use, but can be no substitute for trying to understand each narrative in its own context.

I reccommend that readers of this book also consider the excellent books by Sanders and Ehrman as better introductions to the quest to find a historically plausible Jewish Jesus behind the Christian myths.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

36 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary!, 11 Aug 2004

By	Thomas (France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The 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 disciple's experience of his resurrection led to the awaiting of his second coming, the Parousia, with a Final Judgment.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Illuminating read and valuable reference work, 31 Dec 2007

By	Pieter "Toypom" (Johannesburg) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

Here Geza Vermes has collected, thematically classified and succinctly commented on every word attributed to Jesus in the Gospels of Luke, Mark & Matthew. To a lesser extent he refers to the Gospel of John and rarely also to the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas. To understand the evidence within the historical framework and for purposes of comparison, he draws on the intertestamental records of Judaism: the Apocrypha, Pseudo-Epigrapha, Dead Sea Scrolls, the work of Philo of Alexandria and Flavius Josephus plus the legal and interpretative rabbinic literature.

The aim is to rediscover the core message preached and practiced by Jesus, whose statements are grouped into nine chapters by literary category: narratives & commands, controversy stories, words of wisdom, parables, scripture quotes, prayers, Son of Man sayings, Statements about the Kingdom of God, and Eschatological Rules of Behaviour. The commentary following these quotations endeavors to separate the different levels of superimposed meaning with the goal of establishing their primary settings and significance.

In the final chapter Vermes attempts to formulate the principles that establish parameters for the authenticity of these words. He probes beneath the layers produced by evangelists, the early church and 2000 years of Christianity in order to discover the true meaning of the original teachings. The work culminates in the Epilogue in which the author attempts to outline the essence of the message and personality of the real Jesus based on the words judged most likely to be genuine.

The section titled The Religion of Jesus reveals that there was nothing abstract, theoretical or speculative about it. Jesus tried to teach his listeners how to draw close to God through concrete action and behaviour. There are five major themes: the Kingdom of God, observation of Torah in the final age, eschatological piety, prayers, and view of God. Jesus saw God as a loving father who cares, comparing him to a good shepherd, a generous employer and all-knowing head of a family aware of all his creatures' needs.

In essence, there is absolutely no harshness or severity in the God of Jesus Christ. In my opinion, based upon much reading and study of religion and spirituality, this portrayal corresponds most closely to that of Jewish mysticism and what is variously called New Thought, Divine Science or Mental Science. For proof, please compare The Hidden Power of the Bible by Ernest Holmes, The Sermon on the Mount by Emmet Fox and above all, Bible Mystery and Bible Meaning by Thomas Troward. Jesus considered anxiety, worry and fear of the future as denial of God according to Matt 6:25 - 34 & Luke 12:22 - 31, judged to be examples of his genuine teaching.

The modern varieties of Christianity with their blend of philosophical speculation on a triune deity, logos mysticism, Pauline theology, sacramental symbolism, ecclesiastical discipline and widespread anti-Judaism appear remote, even alien, from their claimed source. Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew by Bart Ehrman is a valuable primer that shows how the aforementioned notions and practices developed and eventually triumphed in Constantine Christianity whilst Larry Hurtado's brilliant book How on Earth did Jesus become a God? sheds a fascinating light on the early origin of devotion to Jesus. Vermes remarks that his reconstruction of the genuine religion of Jesus is nowadays espoused only by single individuals or is distorted by sects and cults.

The author proceeds to discuss the conduct and eschatological motivation of the followers of Jesus after the crucifixion. They continued his charismatic activity of healing and exorcism while still awaiting the imminent arrival of the Kingdom. When the feverish expectation of his return began to subside, the church became a maternal and this-worldly substitute for the Kingdom. In this regard, see also Lord Jesus Christ by Hurtado. Vermes concludes with the counsel that earnest seekers in the Christian tradition ought to heed what Jesus himself taught instead of blindly accepting what has been taught about him.

The appendix contains a register of the sayings discussed in chapters 1 to 9. An asterisk marks those that Vermes considers authentic or probably authentic. The rest is "editorial," ranging from the probably genuine but substantially reworked to the almost certainly inauthentic that represents the view of the early church from approximately 70 to 100 AD.

The book includes a map of the Holy Land in the time of Jesus, a chronological table of important events from 197 BC to 135 AD and concludes with an index of Gospel citations from the Synoptics. For other interesting perspectives, I have found Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus by David Bivin, Yeshua: A Guide to the Real Jesus and the Original Church by Ron Moseley and Yeshua by Yacov Rambsel very instructive and thought-provoking.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 4 customer reviews...

Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars less than honest and objective despite inital appearances
there is no doubt Vermes is very learned when it comes to his subject matter, but unfortunately his bias shows in a book that should be much more objective when it uses the word... Read more

Published 24 months ago by SB

› See all 4 customer reviews...

Listmania!

Dan Brown and a few others: A list by Bhavanjeet Singh Gill
Secrets and Lies: A list by S Wood
Tao, Shamanism, Vudu, Yoga...: A list by both of us "z&s"

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Books > History > Religious History > Christianity
Books > Religion & Spirituality > Bible
Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Church History

Feedback

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible

"The Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible" gathers nearly 5,000... Read more
£26.99

›Find similar items

More From Geza Vermes

The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in...

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Judaean desert between... Read more
£12.99 £9.09

Train Hard...Play Hard

Gear up with up to 60% off athletic and outdoor shoes.

›Shop now

Treat Someone

With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is).

›Learn more about Gift Certificates

	71% buy the item featured on this page: The Authentic Gospel of Jesus 3.5 out of 5 stars (4) �6.99
	10% buy The Changing Faces of Jesus 3.5 out of 5 stars (4) �6.99
	9% buy The Resurrection 4.0 out of 5 stars (2) �5.99
	5% buy Jesus the Jewish Theologian 5.0 out of 5 stars (2) �12.99


Amazon Home

International Sites: United States \| Germany \| France \| Japan \| Canada \| China

Business Programs: Sell on Amazon \| Fulfilment by Amazon \| Join Associates \| Join Advantage

Customer Service \| Help \| View Basket \| Your Account

About Amazon.co.uk \| Careers at Amazon

The Authentic Gospel of Jesus (Paperback)

Frequently Bought Together

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Product details

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested in These Sponsored Links

Product Description

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Customer Reviews

Customer Discussions

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight

Start a new discussion

Listmania!

Look for similar items by category

Feedback

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible

More From Geza Vermes

Train Hard...Play Hard

Treat Someone

Where's My Stuff?

Delivery and Returns

Need Help?

Your Recent History