Customer Reviews:
Nine Faces of Christ.......2007-05-04
I really enjoyed reading this book. It is both inspirational and intriguing.
What's Your Motivation?.......2005-10-02
I believe that one does not just come upon a book such as this without being on a personal spiritual quest of a sort. To process its contents, my suggestion would be to know what drives you and what you seek before reading it. With a mind opened to a non-orthodox interpretation of the life Jesus may have led, this book could prove quite stimulating, and could serve as an invitation to broaden one's meditations even on the lives of Joseph and Mother Mary. However, if one is not prepared for such an alternative view, the experience would be more shocking than beneficial.
A great seekers guide to the Christ process.......2004-06-08
This is a fascinating book for anyone who is an earnest seeker of enlightenment and has a fascination with Jesus Christ but is not into fundamentalist christian ideas and instead views Christ as a great spiritual master whose true teachings only come to us in fragments through the New Testament.
Although this book is not directly a book about uncovering the real Jesus, one can certainly make a lot of sense out of the gospels with this interesting book.
The main character of our story is one Jeshua Joseph-bar-Joseph. The author takes us through a story that pretty much unfolds exactly the way it does in the New Testament gospels, however in this version the author has put a lot of emphasis on the back story of how Jeshua has become a Christ. It isn't just a man born a "divine perfected being", Jeshua has to earn his Christhood through much training and many, many challenges. We get to see HOW he came upon all this great wisdom and ability. We get to see all the great trials Jeshua went through before he went out to deliver his message to the masses. Basically, we get to see a kind of Christ training process. One great thing is we see Jeshua challenged all along the way. Even after he has achieved great heights of exalted consciousness, he still continues to grow and be challenged. It has a very human quality to it that we can all identify with. It's not just "one day while praying he saw the Light and from then on he was the perfected Christ". No, this book has Jeshua really challenged at times while in the process. His core is always very strong and resiliant, but in this story we are shown some "growing pains". Enough to make this story quite inspirational because of how we all can identify with Jeshua trials and tribulations, how we all need to stay focused on staying strong during those challenging times that bring us those break-throughs,it is a story that resonates with our own process of growth. It makes one realize that Enlightenment is more than just having blissful meditations. Christ consciousness only comes from really pushing past your comfort zones spiritually!
So many things in the New Testament make so much more sense after reading this or at least can be viewed in a new light.......One of the most interesting books I've ever read of the "New Age" Christ works.
If it's not "the" truth it certainly is "a" truth........2003-05-17
I have read this book 3 times and will now purchase it again for a 4th reading, since I loaned it and well, you know. But, this book I believe carries so much truth with it that the soul cannot deny it and continues to seek it out, read after, read after, read. I find it to be an amazing amount of wisdom and spiritual teaching, more than I ever got from the New Testament. For me, it is more of the bible, or what I believe they would never print, or allow to be written in the bible then I have seen before. It feels like a channeled piece of work though I do not believe it claims to be so. But, it feels like Christ is speaking to you and telling you his story, how it really happened, and what he really meant when he said and did the things he did.
Controversial? Only if you want it this way........2003-02-04
Is this book actually pretending to tell the truth about the life of Jesus, over and beyond what the new testament narrates? I don't know, and frankly, I don't care.
...Are the mortal sins imported from Egypt? Or shall adultery be punishable in the eyes of God? Well, in the eyes of the church, yes. And we know this is control. I have never accepted the idea that God could give us tools only so he could forbid us to use them. It's like putting candies in the hand of your own child and telling him that he may not -ever- eat them. What is this? Love and care, or torture?
At least Eugene E. Whitworth had the courage to expose his ideas.
If you don't like the idea that this is another 'truth' about the life of Jesus, why not simply accept it as a daring novel?
Eugene E. Whitworth is offering you HIS truth. This deserves respect.
I'm not knowledgeable enough in theology to give any opinion on how truthful the book may be. But then I'm back to quoting the author: what is the difference between reality and actuality?
...
Book Description
With timeless insight, Frederick Buechner introduces us to the Jesus of the Gospel. The old, old story begins to ring new as Buechner revisits the ancient stories and shows us different aspects of the face of Jesus. Here we see the story behind the story. The story which we are invited into. Our story.
Customer Reviews:
MORE BUECHNER, PLEASE.......2007-08-24
This slim volume is vintage Buechner. Six short chapters provide a gentle challenge to meditation for those who are grieving or suffering life's distresses.
Buechner's Jesus.......2006-11-10
Frederick Beuchner seldom dissapoints. This is true of this delightfully poetic view of Jesus' life. Based on some of the more famous pictures of Jesus by various artists, the paper back edition, while handy to have and easily portable lacks the charm of the larger hard cover original edition which contains reproductions of the art work. Typical of Buechner's immently readable style, this book delights the senses while deepening the faith.
HIS SIMPLEST YET.......2006-01-07
Following TELLING SECRETS, this is definitely relief! Reading this biographical material as being heavier. More often his sermons surely lend a hint to his uniquely human, more emotional approach to stories of The Nativity, Ministry, Last Supper, Crucifixion, and Resurrection are quotations of his faith and theology. In the Intro to THE FACES of JESUS Fred begins "He set his face to go to Jerusalem..." One other statement of Fred Buechner's Theology comes in Resurrection, he includes words of a hymn spoken by Jesus at Acts of John. I am deeply impressed by this most mature, fascinating creation of Fredrick Buechner! Retired Chaplain Fred W Hood
The Old, Old Stories Filled Out with Deeper Insight.......2005-09-21
Most of us learned the old, old stories of the Bible as children from our parents or in Sunday school. If we still attend church, the critical few are repeated on an annual basis. And the common scripture readings again cover these moments.
In this book these stories are again repeated. But this time they are combined with a historical view that helps to present a more human view of Jesus, one where we might can view what the man had to go through. In the section on the crucifixion for instance, he talks of how this was a Roman punishment. He adds understanding to the whipping administered beforehand. The Mel Gibson showed this most graphically. But the author points out that the condemned often died under this preliminary punishment, thus being spared the greater one to follow.
Of the crucifixion itself, the whole thing was designed to be as cruel as possible. Death often took two or three days to occur. Jesus was 'fortunate' in surviving only a few hours. And remember that in John, the people involved didn't want the event to continue so the soldiers were instructed to break the legs of the three on the crosses. This put all the weight on the arms and caused suffication to occur quickly.
This little book provides a view that fills in background information to those told in the Bible
An experience of wonder.......2005-08-26
If occasionally you find that the stories of Jesus found in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John have become so familiar they fall flat, this book will help you experience the wonder of reading them again as if for the first time.
The faces of Jesus, his "ways of being and being seen" are illuminated in six chapters: Annunciation, Nativity, Ministry, Last Supper, Crucifixon, and Resurrection.
The focus of the faces of Jesus is that whatever else he may have been, he was a man once and had a "man's face, a human face."
Average customer rating:
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The Hidden Face of Jesus: Reflections on the Emotional Life of Christ
Margaret Magdalen
Manufacturer: Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd
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Binding: Paperback
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Historical Jesus
| Jesus
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ASIN: 023251996X |
Amazon.com
The Changing Faces of Jesus is a reflection on the ways that translations of Scripture have transformed believers' understandings of Jesus. Author Geza Vermes, a biblical scholar perhaps best known for his English translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls, reviews the varying portraits of Jesus in Scripture, particularly focusing on the letters of Paul and the Gospel of John. The author contends that, "by the end of the first century Christianity had lost sight of the real Jesus and of the original meaning of his message." The real Jesus, a "religious man with an irresistible charismatic charm," was replaced by "Jesus the Christ, the transcendent object of the Christian religion." Vermes avoids the polemic tone often adopted by scholars who make similar arguments. Here is an example of the modest style in which this author makes his momentous claims:
As a historian I consider Jesus, the primitive church and the New Testament as part and parcel of first-century Judaism and seek to read them as such rather than through the eyes of a theologian who may often be conditioned, and subconsciously influenced, by two millennia of Christian belief and church directives.
This tone will help readers--even those predisposed to disagree with Vermes--to understand his argument that religious belief has skewed understanding of the central figure of the Christian religion. --Michael Joseph Gross
Book Description
A world-renowned scholar explores the New Testament writings about Jesus that have defined two millennia of Christian belief, worship, and speculation.
Geza Vermes is internationally recognized for his pioneering biblical scholarship as well as for his definitive English-language translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Now, in his latest work, he takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the New Testament to reveal the true historical figure of Jesus hidden beneath the oldest Gospels.
How was this Palestinian charismatic transformed by later generations into the heavenly savior elaborated by the Christian Church? Vermes acts as a sensitive, learned, and thought-provoking guide. His brilliant account presents the fruit of both a lifetime's scholarship and a lifelong quest to understand a solitary giant among Jewish prophets.
Customer Reviews:
Vermes fails in methodology, exegesis.......2007-06-14
The Changing Faces of Jesus, partly an update of Jesus the Jew, goes into all the New Testament writings, whereas Jesus the Jew concentrated on the Synoptics, Matthew, Mark and Luke. The Changing Faces of Jesus is a sad book, and often a bad (because unscholarly) book. Vermes many times abandons scholarship to make belittling comments. For example (1) on p. 215, discussing the twelve-year-old Jesus debating with the Temple teachers `in his Father's house', where Luke is presenting Jesus as the Son of God, His Father, in a quite unique way, Vermes sees no more than a family story such as every Jewish family tells about its precocious son. (2) When Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey (in the gospel writers' view showing Jesus as fulfilling Zechariah's messianic prophecy), Vermes' understanding is (in Jesus the Jew) - that was the least tiring way. (3) The crucial issue in the split between Christians and Jews was the question of the Messiah. This is reflected in chapter 9 of St John's gospel, where the man who accepts Jesus as Messiah is `put out of the synagogue'. Vermes says (page 30, n.1) that all that that means, as any good `contentious' Jew will understand, is - if you don't like your local synagogue you just go down the road to the next one. (4) Again, speaking of the commandment to love one another, but missing the point of the special Johannine resonances (`as I have loved you'), Vermes says (page 44): "John's Gentile Christians required a course for primary school pupils in which the simplest details had to be spelt out". (5) Vermes tells us that if he were Jesus, things wouldn't have turned out as they did; he would have written his own story, instead of leaving it to his followers, and so on (e.g. pp. 264,269,270). He ends (p. 270) by having Jesus say, "You've been told to expect everything from me. I say, you must save yourselves". This is totally false to the NT, and no less so to the Old Testament. Vermes calls his whole Epilogue (pp 269,270) a Dream. It is simply a triviliazed childish fantasy. The above issues hardly need scholarly refutation. As a serious New Testament scholar, I object to this parody of scholarship.
Even when he attempts serious exegesis, Vermes' interpretation of the New Testament is continually at fault. On page 118, he dismisses the title of `Servant' given to Jesus as being of no significance. Yet throughout the NT the Servant Songs of Isaiah and many other Isaianic themes are key sources from OT times for the Person and role of Jesus. [A strong current of Jewish writing is beginning to recognize this, basing itself on the most recent Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship. Thus Israel Knohl writes in The Messiah Before Jesus, Univ. of California Press, pb, 2002, p 16: "Thus, the messianic interpretation of Isaiah 53 was not ['not' is in italics in the original] discovered in the Christian Church. ... we should consider the possibility that the depiction of Jesus as a combination of the 'son of man' and the 'suffering servant' was not a later invention of the Church. Perhaps the historical Jesus really did see himself in this way ... ". See my review of Knohl's book.] Again, on p. 78 Vermes repeats arguments, against the scholarly consensus, that the hymn in Philippians 2.6-11, explicitly attributing to Jesus the text which Isaiah 45.23 addresses to Yahweh, must be a late insertion into Paul's letter. On every count this is unlikely. In Philippians itself the idea occurs again, and it is also equally strongly suggested in the text of Romans 10.9 (probably another pre-Pauline confession): "if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord (kyrios) ... you will be saved". Will we be saved by believing merely that Jesus is greater than Caesar? Must not `kyrios' here, applied to Jesus, mean `Yahweh'? See also, in the same sense, Romans 10.13, 1 Cor 12.3, Col 2.6, etc.
Vermes simply will not accept that to understand the person and the role of Jesus one has to go back to the typology, the prophecies and the history of the Old Testament (including the Apocrypha), as every New Testament author does, and not forward for between two hundred and six hundred years after the life of Christ to the rabbinic teachings which are conditioned by their explicit rejection of the New Testament witness to Jesus as Son of God, Messiah, God. His references back to the Old Testament in Jesus the Jew are less numerous and less significant than his forward references to this much later rabbinic literature. The Changing Faces has no index of biblical references. Vermes' relative neglect of the OT, from which the NT Jesus springs, is indefensible. For some idea of the massive OT sourcing of the Jesus story, see the Index of `Loci Citati vel Allegati' [textual quotations, references, and influences from the Old Testament used in the NT] in Nestle-Aland's Novum Testamentum Graece, which can be expanded indefinitely.
It is false methodology to depend primarily on the thinking of the rabbinic writers (for all that they may contribute occasional useful information) as the source of the authentic portrait of Christ, in preference to the Christian NT authors, Jewish to a man (with the possible exception of Luke), believers in the OT as their only scripture, familiar with the world of ideas found in the Dead Sea Scrolls (see Fr Joseph Fitzmyer's The Dead Sea Scrolls and Christian Origins, Eerdmans, 2000), contemporaries or first or second generation successors to the immediate hearers and followers of Jesus.
Yet again: Vermes's comparison between Jesus and the Jewish holy men Honi and Hanina ben Dosa simply fails. They may match a St Francis of Assisi, but emphatically not Francis's Master, the Lord Jesus Christ. I quote only one comparison. Vermes (p. 252) sees no difference between the run-of-the-mill `bat qol' to "Hanina `my son'" and the `bat qol's to Jesus at his Baptism and Transfiguration where the heavenly messages are: "You are my Son, the Beloved, the Only-Begotten; with you I am well pleased ... This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him" (Mark 1.11; 9.7, NRSV). These recall Isaiah 42.1, Ps 2.2, Genesis 22.2 (the Aqedah), the Exodus appearances to Moses, Deut 18.15. Is this said to Honi or Hanina? Did they bring in the Kingdom of God? Were they acclaimed as Messiah? Did they rise from the dead? Were they acclaimed as God?
Vermes denies, in the face of the evidence, all of these Christian claims. He is forced to believe this instead: that Jesus, bloodied from the scourging, crowned with thorns, crucified as a deluded messiah/king, dead, "[Jesus] yet rose in the hearts of his disciples who had loved him and felt he was near" (quoting Winter, pp. 174,175). This is incredible and impossible invention on the part of Winter/Vermes by which they seek to explain away the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ and the disciples' devotion to preaching unto their deaths the truth of this resurrection. Winter/Vermes are simply lamentable.
The OT foreshadowings are fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and not in any other Jewish holy man (see the despairing and nihilistic book by Dan Cohn-Sherbok, The Jewish Messiah, T & T Clark, 1997). Judaism has only ever produced one candidate as Messiah, Son of God, God-with-us - Jesus Christ. Both methodologically and exegetically, the Christian position stands.
[This Review has figured on the Amazon UK website since 4 January 2007]
The Mangled Face of Jesus.......2006-05-11
Publisher's Weekly complains that "The book sometimes engages in speculative reasoning". "Constantly" is more like it. One has to realize when one goes into this book that Vermes has a giant theological ax to grind. Having converted from Catholicism to Judaism Vermes rejects any concept of the divinity of Christ and as a result takes his ax to the corpus of the NT, chopping out the parts that don't agree with his theological view and leaving a meager shred he considers the "true Jesus". The entire book can be summarized as follows: a) Vermes rejects any concept of the divinity of Christ b) Vermes finds many references to it in the NT c) Vermes hacks out all those references as "not fitting the original theology" d) Viola! The "real Jesus".
Doesn't the book of John clearly equate Christ with God? Whack! Off it goes. What about the Pauline epistles? Whack! Off they go but a handful. Doesn't Philipians, one of the few he accepts, equate Christ with God in chapter 2: 6-11? Chop, off goes that part. What justification is there to remove it? "Because it makes more sense" that way. (p. 86)
This wouldn't be so bad if Vermes were at least honest up front about his theological viewpoint and not so dishonest along the way. The book abounds with falsehoods and contradictions and Vermes makes some astoundingly ignorant statements at times.
He questions whether Paul was really the Pharisee he is portrayed to have been since, after all, "His principles as a Pharisee cannot have been held very profoundly, bearing in mind how easily... he could allow his Gentile followers (and himself) dispensation from observance of Jewish dietary rules and other Mosaic ritual precepts." Let's see, didn't Paul have some kind of conversion experience somewhere that radically changed his thinking?
Referring to the phrase "Son of God", Vermes categorically declares "No biblical or postbiblical Jewish writer ever depicted a human being literally as divine." (p 37) This is contradicted by II Samuel 7:14, which Vermes himself quotes earlier, as well as Psalm 2:7, 45:6 and Isaiah 9:6 all of which Vermes fails to mention.
On p 20 Vermes asserts " the most dismaying feature of the Fourth Gospel is its determined claim that the Jews were profoundly and universally inimical to Jesus." Anyone familiar with John knows that is patently untrue. Only 21 pages later Vermes himself writes "...John paints a Jesus who openly admits that he is the Messiah and is recognized as such by practically the whole of Palestinian Jewry."
I could go on and on and I still haven't finished the book.
Arrogance too is no small vice here. Vermes sneeringly castigates the supposed ignorance of the fourth gospel's target audience; "John's Gentile Christians required a course for primary school pupils in which the simplest details had to be spelled out." (p 49) Despite it being 2000 years later, Vermes is convinced he knows the gospel better than the apostle Paul, who he finds guilty of "twisting and sometimes undoing the genuine messsage of Jesus." (Meanwhile Vermes accuses Paul of "recurrent illogicality" p 76)
Of course, Vermes didn't invent this kind of arrogance -it's an unfortunate part of the European intellectual tradition, which is convinced it sees what happened thousands of years ago so much more clearly than did those poor benighted souls who, like Paul and the author of John, actually lived at the time in question. If that's your tradition, you may like this book. If not, and if you have any real familiarity with the NT, prepare to be appalled.
Who Was The Real Jesus?.......2006-02-13
Geza Vermes is a noted authority on the Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient works in Aramaic, and a controversial but respected authority on the life and religion of Jesus. In this short but insightful essay, he summarizes years of his own scholarship and attempts to pierce through the successive layers of translation, gloss and commentary in order to portray the true face of Jesus.
The Scriptures superimpose several portraits of Jesus on one another. The Fourth Gospel of John, written three generations after the facts, differs significantly from the Synoptic Gospels, while Luke and Matthew base their narrative on an early version of Mark (the existence of another common source, or Q as in Quelle, the German word for "source", is still a hotly debated topic). Starting with John's mystical vision of the divine Christ, and with Paul's mystery drama of salvation (the word "myth" is used several times in reference to Pauline Christology), the author introduces the figure of Jesus as he was perceived by the early heirs of his creed, by his contemporaries, and ultimately by himself.
As an entry point in each book of the New Testament, Vermes starts by surveying the titles ascribed to Jesus while replacing these titles in Jewish history and theology. In the Gospels, Jesus has many titles besides "Christ" or "Messiah": Prophet, Lord, Son of Man, Son of God, Son of David, King of the Jews and Emmanuel. Together Christians understand these titles as attesting to Jesus' divinity. Vermes argues that when used in other Hebrew and Aramaic texts of the time, these titles have other meanings, and therefore that they must have other meanings when used in the Gospels as well.
For instance he shows that the Hebrew Bible and post-biblical literature apply the title "son of God" first to every Jew, and later to pious Jews in general and to specially chosen individuals such as kings, prophets, holy men, and the Messiah. He then suggests that the identification of "son of God" with divinity is pagan in origin and was added after Christianity broke with Judaism:
"These concepts, coupled with the picture of children born of the union of Olympian gods and earthly women, known from classical mythology but divested of their pagan connotations, may have subconsciously played a part in the later Christian formulation of the divine sonship of Jesus within the thought world of Greek civilization."
At this point, some Christians will remember 2 John 7: "Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist." Others, while not necessarily convinced by the argument, will appreciate the vast scholarship that Vermes brings to the subject and will use his perspective to further their knowledge of Jesus.
Intensely polemical.......2005-12-17
I confess I am baffled by some of the reviews here. The one thing this book is, is polemical. It is intensely polemical. Just two examples. He characterizes part of the introduction to the book of John as a "the forces of light defeat the (Jewish) forces of darkness." Read John 1 yourself; there is no mention of Jews, nor any suggestion that the "forces of darkness" are Jewish. And read his final short "dream" chapter if you are in any doubt. It is a Jewish apologetic through and through.
His examples of Hasids have also been sharply criticized by other scholars, and he relies on very late (ie medieval)sources for some of them. Some of his logic is tortured. Still there is lots of interesting stuff here. 4 stars for the content, 2 stars for the tendentiousness and prose.
A marvel of insightful scholarship and a delight to read.......2005-07-13
Most books about the historical Jesus fall into one of four categories. First, pious works of small persuasiveness which merely rehash dogma heard interminably since childhood. Second, romantic and preposterous tales of Jesus running off to the Cote d'Azur with Mary Magdalene, or alternatively, to the Mysterious East to study at the feet of various yogis, swamis, sadhus, pandits, fakirs, bonzes, and lamas. Third, anachronistic depictions of Jesus as a first century version of Ernesto "Che" Guevara leading a Judean liberation movement and murdered by the Fascist Roman power structure for his pains. Fourth and last, judicious and careful works of scrupulous scholarship by historians acknowledged as leading lights in their field by peers (e.g., E. P. Sanders, Paula Fredrikson), even those peers who may have scholarly disagreements with the author. This book belongs to the forth category.
Professor Vermes has devoted over half a century to the study of first-century Palestine and shares some of the results of his investigations in this book. It is entirely devoid of pedantry and alive with bracing insights into the world Jesus lived and died in. Some reviewers here have made much of what they take to be insufficient documentation, but citations are easily found in Professor Vermes' earlier works that this book draws upon. A history written for non-specialists need not be excessively freighted with notes and other scholarly apparatus.
Professor Vermes' method is to carefully dig away the layers of theological encrustation that formed over the narrative of Jesus' words and actions in the New Testament by a sort of painstaking literary archaeological dig. This is aided by careful study of other remaining records of the period including those by classical historians such as Flavius Josephus and Tacitus. Where Professor Vermes really shines is in his careful attention to and interpretation of writings by Jewish contemporaries of Jesus, some of which (e.g., the Dead Sea scrolls) have only come to light in modern times. Until relatively recently, these sources have been mostly ignored. Even when they have been studied, it has often been more for the purpose of extracting facile glosses then of providing illumination. The author draws a convincing portrait of first-century Palestine as a land febrile with apocalyptic and eschatological expectation. Prophets and wonder-workers of every description were active, and Jesus was fully a part of the matrix of first-century Judaism. Despite longstanding belief that it was envy and malice, first from the Pharisees and Temple priests, then from the Jewish crowds that caused the execution of Jesus; Professor Vermes concludes that apprehension for the safety of the crowds in Jerusalem during Passover caused the priests and officials to arrest Jesus and hand him over to the Romans. He was then put to death in the barbarous manner prescribed by Roman law and custom for seditionists and revolutionaries. His followers were left untouched however-a puzzling omission the Romans would scarcely have made had they thought Jesus a genuine revolutionary and his followers a real threat (or even potential threat) to their rule. When the Romans put down the slave rebellion led by Sparticus, the roads leading out of Rome were lined on either side with thousands of crucified rebels for miles around. All sources (including Roman ones) agree that Pontius Pilate was a brutal man, even by Roman standards. (He eventually would be removed from office because of his cruelty by the Emperor Tiberius, whose own harshness was legend.) He would not have hesitated the slightest in condemning a wholly innocent man to die out-of-hand. The idea that he meekly acceding to the wishes of a Jewish mob baying for Jesus' blood as attributed by the gospels is utterly fantastic by all evidence, including the rest of the gospels themselves. The disturbance provoked in the Temple precincts by Jesus among the moneychangers and merchants in the days prior to the Passover was sufficient to seal his tragic fate. He might have only been whipped and released with a warning--as was done to others who had disturbed the peace--had things happened at a less tense moment.
As everyone knows, in the decades after the execution of Jesus, the early Christian movement spread throughout the Roman world to Gentiles as well as Jews. Tragically as things would turn out, it began to change form as it became ever more removed in time and space from Jesus' lifetime in Galilee and Judea. With repeated warfare and destruction in Palestine during the reigns of the Emperors Vespasian and Hadrian, the organized Jewish community was decimated and scattered, and could not serve as a check on the process of transformation. The virile Jesus, concrete in word and deed, became the pallid, spectral Christ of Faith; enthroned in heaven and silent in his eternal, sacred calm while his earthly viceroys spoke and ruled for him. A non-hierarchical movement that began in the Galilean countryside among independent tradesmen, small farmers, and fisherman, all of them Jews, became centered upon the abject and deracinated Gentile masses of Roman cities, most descended from slaves with the mark of servility still upon them. They were lorded over by a celestial bureaucracy that emulated the Empire at a time when it had become an absolute despotism, and the rights of Roman citizens had virtually disappeared. Most tragic of all, the fissure that opened between Gentile Christians and Jews (including Jewish followers of Jesus) would grow into a chasm of mutual enmity and suspicion, manifestations of which would range from slurs in the writings of Church fathers such as Saint John Chrysostom and reformers such as Martin Luther, to murder at the hands of medieval European peasants and their twentieth century descendants who served as camp guards, trusties, auxiliary police, German and foreign SS troops, and indifferent bystanders.
This book is rendered in clear, graceful, and gracious prose that displays the author's goodwill on nearly every page. His comments are touched with a gentle irony here and there that is certain to discomfit a certain type of Christian all the more for being so marvelously devoid of rancor or bitterness. This in spite of the profoundly tragic loss of Professor Vermes' family during the Holocaust. By way of comparison, the comments on display in negative reviews here tell all that we need to know about the writers' intellect, and rather more than cared to know about their character. (Accusations of poisoning wells and of draining the blood of Christian children to make matzos are the only things missing from these reviews.)
Ultimately, the Jesus we meet in these pages is the Jesus we always knew; the Galilean who preferred the rough company of the poor and "sinners" to anyone else, and who gave them the encouragement and strength they needed to endure and reform their hard lives. The man who was not concerned with mere perfectionism, but who simply sought to do the will of "our Father in Heaven", and who would have been astonished at any person or group claiming in his name to have surpassed or perfected the Law. The idea of founding a church appears to have been the furthest thing from his mind. When we glimpse him through the mists of time and the smoke of myth, we do not see the awe-inspiring figure crowned with golden riza and riding on the clouds of glory; still less do we see the scowling, terrifying Christ Pantocrator, i.e., Judge of the Universe. Thanks to decades of careful, patient work by Professor Vermes and other scholars, we see the man of gentle visage and steel-eyed determination who feared no one but God, and of whom none should be afraid. Those who claim to follow him today for the most part divide between the many who inwardly cringe with fear while claiming to love him, and the few who use this fear as a stick to beat the recalcitrant into line.
This work should be read by all who do not rest content with received notions from self-interested authority, but who wish to discover the truths of history and life.
Book Description
In this volume the noted scholar Ben Witherington, III, discusses in chronological order the New Testament evidence of what the historical Jesus did, what he said, and what those around him believed.
Customer Reviews:
Replying to a Central Question, "Does the New Testament calls Jesus God?" .......2005-11-19
"Yet in some respects Rice's Jesus is one that Fredricksen would not recognize, as Rice is perfectly clear in her portrayal of Jesus as both divine and human, and most definitely as the only begotten Son of God born of the virgin Mary." Ben Witherington
Anne Rice's Christ:
In a recent review posted, November 16, 2005, by Ben Witherington of Anne Rice's 'Christ the Lord - Out of Egypt,' he wrote, "Rice gets to critique liberal Jesus scholars, amongst others. Rice also tells us the story of her conversion and return to Roman Catholicism, which entailed a return to investigate questions which had haunted her all her life -how did Christianity actually come about? ...I would give myself utterly to the task of trying to understand Jesus himself and how Christianity emerged."
To the reconverted Roman Catholic novelist quest, Witherington anticipated statement, seven years earlier was, "Where did all of this vast array of christological thinking come from? Ultimately, we have argued, it in many cases goes back to Jesus himself, or to the earliest Jewish Christian followers of Jesus."
Many faces of the Christ:
The renowned Bible scholar explains, in Gospel precedence; NT Worship records, Pauline epistles, Synoptics, Acts of Early Church, Johannine Corpus, and ultimately the General epistles concludes on the evidence of the wonder deeds, and teachings of the historical Jesus, and what his disciples thought of him. The Christ, whose light shone in radiant teachings and great acts by Jesus, and expressed in his multiple witness, are reviewed and their christologies analyzed and evaluated by Witherington.
Witherington scope in his New Testament survey, of the different views of the life and work of Jesus, recorded in the early Christian writings, is in particular exploring the NT christologies. His coverage is different, in scope and audience, than many christology scholars, including the extensive Schillebeeck's 'Jesus and Christ,' and is more concerned with replying a very central question, "Does the New Testament calls Jesus God?"
Christology in Review:
In a scholarly essay, in disregard of Fredriksen who pioneered the development of the Christological Myth; 'From Jesus to Christ,' and Cohen who follows suit in a line of non believing academics, he comes to the very contrary conclusion. Professor Cohen of Brown University states about the Christ, "you would say he was a magician, a charlatan, a faker, a pretender, just a cheap trickster", while Dr. Fredriksen of Boston University alleges that, "we might think that the attribution of apocalyptic hope to Jesus came from a level after his lifetime, or may be was the editorial decision of the evangelist"
In his well informed treatment, without trying to reconcile the various witness, Witherington comes to the same conclusions of early Jews and Jewish Christians, predicating a very high Christology, including Christ theos, very early on. In his final apology he writes, "Any adequate discussion of the growth and development of New Testament Christologies will have to reckon with the probability that some Christians understood that they took to be fuller implications of the Christ-event sooner than others,"
Ben Witherington III:
Bible scholar Witherington, Ph.D., from the U. of Durham, England, is Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary, Kentucky. Witherington has taught at Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. Now considered one of the world top evangelical scholars, is an elected member of SNTS, the prestigious society of New Testament studies.
Methodology in Review:
"Witherington has such felicitous turns of phrase and a manner of writing that makes reading such dense material delightful. ...He has [always] shown that historical criticism is still the most fundamental tool in the box." --Bryn Mawr Classical Review
a solid study.......2002-04-01
this is a great little introduction to new testament christology. witherington covers all of the bases: the pre-Christian era, the christology of Jesus, each book in the new testament, and the early patristic evidence.
placing his study firmly within the context of early Judaism, witherington concludes that the christology offered by the New Testament actually exceeds that of the ante-nicene period. his dealing with the evidence is always fair, and he never overplays his hand. witherington is one of the finest new testament scholars of our day (particularly in the area of Wisdom christology), and this is a fantastic introduction to his work.
Book Description
An amazing true story of a journey through seven ascending heavens, three actual encounters with Jesus Christ, a meeting with the Virgin Mary, and the deliverange of their modern messages for humankind.
In 1994, during the darkest hour of his life, David Sereda had his first face-to-face meeting with Jesus Christ. On Easter morning, 1997, Jesus appeared again to David to continue with the messages contained in this book.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent book.......2007-04-07
The first few pages of reading I thought to myself that I was not going to like this book, however, I was determined to keep on reading. As I read along, I really started to like the book a lot. It has changed my entire outlook on other religions. As the author stated, "We all pray to the same God, just under different names." The only part I had some trouble believing was the last chapter on the UFO experience. If he had left this out, the book would have been perfect. I do recommend this book. It was a pleasure to read and I will read it again.
Science, not religion, please..........2007-02-23
What a disappointment to come across this chronicle of a religious delusion by such a bright and promising ufologist.
The Case for NASA UFOS dvd was awe inspiring, and David's analysis and passionate emphasis on the reality of ufos is excellent. I was a bit shocked to see that he wrote this book premised upon the visitation of a non-existent fictional person such as "Jesus Christ", who symbolizes the binding of earth humans to the wheel of ignorance and superstitious belief. I recommend that everyone read "Star Wisdom" by Gene Andrade for a primer, "The Talmud of Immanuel" concerning the earthly prophet Immanuel who's mission here was fictionalized and distorted and falsely represented in the contrived "Jesus Christ" myth, and to further investigate the "Meier Contacts" for more specific information and solid evidence ([...]).
A mind expanding journey into a greater understanding of the nature of God.......2006-11-10
This is an incredible book from an incredible author. There is so much insight here about the potential we all have as children of God. I even bought a copy for my father, and a friend as well as for myself. I would definitely reccommend this to anyone who seeks to obtain a greater understanding of the infinite God that dwells within all of us.
Real Encounter with Jesus.......2006-03-23
I heard David Sereda on the show Coast to Coast AM. He spoke very eloquently on the subject of physics, singularity in particular. I looked on Amazon to see if he had any books for sale on physics, and I found this book on a totally different subject. This guy is smart, very smart. He was a student of eastern religion, then became a Christian, which isn't a very cool thing to do in the eastern religion circles. He spoke on Coast to Coast to 10 million listeners about physics, and he didn't even have a book to sell. He doesn't seem to be in the media for money, and he certainly didn't get any glory from becoming Christian. Based on those facts, I think he really did meet Jesus face-to-face. I learned some things from the book, and it's also a fun and easy read.
face to face with jesus christ.......2005-10-24
very thought provoking and enlightening...
for those who are in serch of a divine truth,,this book takes you beyond the human civilizations segregationist mentallity to a unified concept of TRUTH that can only lead the readers to an understanding that it is imperitive to come out from under the EGO centerd mind set and embrace the universal love of our creator,, that we may be able to uplift ourselves and enter into his presence....
Book Description
A radical reinterpretation of the relationship of Judas and Jesus
• Reexamines the role and the purpose the key figure of Judas played in the crucifixion story
• Reveals how Judas was “betrayed” by Jesus, and how, taken to the limits of his humanity, he lost everything he most cherished on the path to his true self
The familiar story of Judas, betrayer of Jesus, is striking because of its incomprehensibility. Why would one of Christ’s disciples and companions of the heart deliver him up to his enemies and a barbarous, ignominious, and certain death for thirty pieces of silver? Jean-Yves Leloup’s careful investigation of the gospels, various apocryphal texts, and most importantly the Coptic codex known as the Gospel of Judas, leads him to conclude that there is more to the familiar story of Judas than a simple demonstration, viewed through one man, of humanity’s inherent failings.
The betrayal of Jesus to the Romans was Jesus’s idea, explains Leloup. Jesus persuaded Judas to play the role of “evil” in humankind by telling him that this enactment was crucial to God’s plan and would set Judas by Jesus’s side for eternity: “There where I am,” spoke Jesus to Judas, “is where I wish you, too, to be.”
But to get there, Judas--a metaphorical representation of the darker side present in all human beings and the “shadow” counterpart to his Messiah dying on the cross-- must first shed all his human qualities. His failings of greed, deceit, and cowardice--and even his faith and hope--are washed away in the despair that engulfs him. A parallel moment occurs for Jesus on the cross, when he comes to know the despair of separation from God. The moment Judas “loses” his life and all that gave it meaning--his God, his law, his justice, his Messiah--is the very moment he finds that which cannot be discarded--life eternal. Thus, in the moment of his ultimate extremity, Judas receives Jesus’s true message and his intended gift.
Customer Reviews:
Spirituality holdings will find it intriguing, classrooms will find it perfect for discussion........2007-04-11
The story of Judas is moving and striking partially because the specter of a beloved disciple's betrayal is still a challenge to understand. Jean-Yves Leloup is a theologian and founder of several alternative institutes and here reconstructs the Judas story, offering an alternative explanation for his actions. Illustrative dialogue accompanies an explanation that holds that Jesus himself was at the root of the betrayal idea. Spirituality holdings will find it intriguing, classrooms will find it perfect for discussion.
Customer Reviews:
Knowing the Father through Jesus Christ.......2004-04-11
Schonborn does a masterful job in presenting the Trinitarian and Christological foundations of iconography. Actually, I use this book mostly for the Christological sections. It is VERY well done! All the major and minor aspects of Christology are examined and continually related to the role and meaning of the Incarnation and, thus, the meaning and role of icons. A few well chosen color icons are in the book.
This work is highly recommended. I wish I could buy it for you!
God's Human Face: Best ever written on anthropological theology of Icons.......2004-01-26
"Incarnation of God the Word, as a realization of the perfect man." As such his disclosure to us reveals who God is and who we are as perfected in God. (cited in Ouspensky 483)
Christ, God's supreme icon:
St. Irenaeus wrote, "When the Word of God became flesh, He showed forth the image truly, since He himself became what was His image; and He reestablished the likeness -- by rendering man altogether similar to the invisible Father." Christ is the supreme icon of God and the supreme icon of humanity divinized.
When we think of icons, it is almost, by default, that we think instantly of 'written' images of Jesus and the saints. Developing the New Testament implication of the image of God in Christ, Leonid Ouspensky, Orthodox theologian and icon expert wrote, "Christianity raises the image of Christ before the world. Christianity shows the prototype according to which man was created, now hidden because of his sin. This image lives in Tradition, the mystical memory of the Church, its inner life."
Christ, true image of God:
Eastern Orthodox and Greek Byzantines refer to icons as being 'written' rather than painted, since icons are treated as theological texts, a graphical depiction of scripture. Only Christ is the true image of God. Christ is the prototypical icon: Whoever experience Christ does enter mystically into the Father's presence, in fullness. The icon's place in the church liturgical life is derived from the living personal existence, in whom the unity of the nature of God with sanctified human beings is vividly clear. Through Christ and in Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, human beings are called to something more. Humans are called and allowed to be images of Christ.
Creative Iconographic theology:
Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn discerns the depth of the truth of Cyril's teaching on the unity of Christ, masterfully exposing Origen's Iconclastic Christology, and compares two of his students St. Athanasius and Arius place of image in their systematic theology of the Person of the Word. Eusebius' view, midway between the Orthodox and neoplatonist, expressed a third way of interpreting their common master Origen. The enlightened Cardinal presents the most fascinating expression in the real great Eastern Orthodox, Maximus the confessor, Love as the Icon of God. Part II, the Church sliding into paganism would appeal to Protestants, but is relevant to all of us.
Thanks, your Eminence:
I am amazed and humbled by those authentic Orthodox Catholics who know our fathers, doctors (teachers) of the Church, in such depth and loving understanding that preaches the real unity of the One Holy Universal Apostolic Church. This authentic teacher who wrote "From Death to Life, The Christian Journey," and further, "Living the Catechism: life in Christ," wrote the most compelling, in depth thorough study on the roots of iconography, and a reflection on its supporting Christologies.
I encountered no other book on the subject which ever explained, so deeply the true meaning of God's Human Face. So, read, learn, and meditate on anthropological theology, Christology, and Patrology, all flowing in order,logic and harmony.
One of the best intros on the subject.......2000-10-13
Schonborn does a masterful job in presenting the Trinitarian and Christological foundations of iconography. Actually, I use this book mostly for the Christological sections. It is VERY well done! All the major and minor aspects of Christology are examined and continually related to the role and meaning of the Incarnation and, thus, the meaning and role of icons. A few well chosen color icons are in the book.
This work is highly recommended. I wish I could buy it for you!
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- On the Shoulders of Giants: My Journey Through the Harlem Renaissance
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- Pink Box: Inside Japan's Sex Clubs
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Books Index
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