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In 1926, the Protestant scholar Rudolph Bultmann wrote, "I do indeed think that we can now know almost nothing concerning the life and personality of Jesus." Modern Biblical criticism had turned the gospels from solid rock to quicksand and suddenly the attempt to glimpse the real Jesus seemed pointless. Then Geza Vermes published Jesus the Jew, in which he presented Jesus as a charismatic Jewish teacher. In his latest book, The Changing Faces of Jesus, Vermes consolidates his thesis by trying to show how the divine Jesus was a later invention of the Christian Church. To do this he dissects the New Testament, picking out the later "divine Jesus" traditions from the earlier "Jewish teacher" traditions. There are two problems with this kind of scholarship. First the temptation is to reject as "later" the bits of the New Testament which don't fit your thesis. Secondly, all the evidence is so tenuous that as soon as one scholar comes up with a convincing thesis another argues just as convincingly for the opposite view. Vermes writes well in an accessible style and it's good to have readable religious history, but the general reader may not realise this is just one portrait of the historical Jesus among many. If this is the only book one reads on the topic the picture is distorted. However, if Vermes' portrait of Jesus is taken with all the others, a fascinating mosaic portrait of Jesus can be assembled. In that respect, Vermes' work is a valuable piece in the puzzle. --Dwight Longenecker
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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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.
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8 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I can't help but feel that the previous reviewer has missed the point of this book. What Geza Vermes has achieved here is to separate the modern-day, Christian interpretation of Jesus's words and actions from the first century, Jewish point of view, i.e. the rightful context of Jesus's ministry. In the process he succinctly demonstrates the evolution and mythification of the life of a charismatic Galilean preacher. A must-read before attending the next Alpha course!
29 of 42 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
With "The Changing Faces of Jesus", Geza Vermes once more promulgates his thesis that the historical Jesus was much more like a Jewish Galilean holy man than an apocalyptic preacher, a messiah or a divine son of God. It is work he has carried on (even overtly in print) for over 25 years now since his publication of "Jesus the Jew" so I don't think we should be too surprised to find him following it through here in his latest offering. As it stands, this book is lucid and informative on the Jewish history acolytes to biblical and Jewish studies will be familiar with. Vermes is well known for his mastery of this material and that mastery shows here. So we have much rich and useful background to the world Jesus most probably knew. One point to note, however, is Vermes's seeming philosophical naivety. His use of the word "real" to describe the Jesus he finds - and which the New Testament, he argues, so interestedly disguises - is both irritating and impulsive on his part. In a world in which many studies of Jesus now devote whole sections to what they are actually finding under the rubric "historical Jesus" Vermes's persistent simplification here is both annoying and misleading. But since this book (without footnotes people!) is clearly written for the general reader we may assume such things are thought irrelevant in such a context even if we admit that as a contribution to "the Quest of the historical Jesus" this book will always fall short of the methodological heights others have reached. So, to cut to the quick, this is a book written by an expert in ancient Jewish texts who uses that knowledge to present an angle of view on the historical figure of Jesus of Nazareth. It is not a Christianised Jesus that is found, for Jesus was not a Christian but a Jewish "man of God" - hence the Gospels and the New Testament are engaging in creative writing in line with their beliefs - something Vermes finds understandable if not entirely historical. The reader, thus, must judge whether such a Jesus is something they can stomach before they begin to read a book written from the point of view of an expert in Jewish texts. It may be judged, though, that history is rather more than fitting historical figures into the available information - which is Vermes's assumed method. One last point: the Epilogue, of a dream Vermes once had, where Jesus appears and speaks to various religious communities is a priceless piece of hyperbole!
24 of 43 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
When Evangelical Christians tell you to read 'the facts' about Jesus, and assert that having done so there could be no rational denial of His divinity, they do not want you to get the details from books like this...
Vermes shows what proper textual scholarship can make of the New Testament, and I defy anyone to read this book and still maintain that the virgin birth and resurrection are beyond reasonable doubt.
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