Providential Accidents: An Autobiography

An autobiography of the world's foremost expert on the Jewish Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls might seem like a snorer to anyone outside academe. But if you enjoy a good character novel, if Dickens or Trollope turn you on, you need to read Providential Accidents. Vermes' life is one of those stranger-than-fiction stories, with more Twists than Oliver, and more intriguing clerics and clerical intrigue than Barchester Towers. Born of non-observant Jews in pre-WW2 Hungary, the young Geza and his family convert to allow him access to better education. Soon he's in Catholic seminary (for much the same reason) and ordained. The War sends most of his family to the death camps, and Geza to Paris, where he joins an order dedicated to converting Jews. His career in Biblical scholarship leads the gifted priest to question his Church's views on Jesus, until he finally leaves both priesthood and Christianity, becoming, against all odds, the first professor of Jewish Studies at Oxford. A "novel-within-the novel" deals with Vermes' leadership of the movement to free the Dead Sea Scrolls from the grip of their restrictive and anti-Jewish guardians.Vermes is neither novelist nor biographer, and the writing is a bit stuffy. And the book does leave one wishing for more insight into his inner process of "reconversion." Psychological novel this isn't; still, I expected a treatise and got a page-turner. Vermes is a hero.

Providential Accidents - what a well-chosen title- gives a moving insight into the colorful life of a scholar who is world-famous for his pioneering work on the Dead Sea Scrolls and on the historical Jesus. It reveals also in a very impressive way Vermes's personal development starting from provincial Hungary between the wars to his appointment to the chair of Jewish Studies in the University of Oxford and to a Fellowship of the British Academy. A few extracts from the press reviews of the British edition will show the profound impact of this beautifully written book. "Geza Vermes changed accepted views of the life of Christ. Now he has written his own life: the story of a Jew who converted to Catholicism, became a priest, and has now reaffirmed his Jewishness" - The Independent, London. "Vermes believes that Jews and Christians have a lot to learn from looking at Jesus as he was 'thoroughly Jewish'" - The Jerusalem Report. "Providential Accidents is a remarkable story. Vermes' stunning autobiography provides constant evidence of the intuition, wholeness and humility that facilitated the 'providential accidents' which have shaped his life" -The Tablet, London (Roman Catholic) "It reads better than a novel" - Expository Times, Edinburgh.