The Passion: The True Story of an Event That Changed Human History

Short summary: The book is divided in four parts; in the first part he looks at the historical background of the crucifixion of Jesus and in particular at the Jewish legal system in force in Judea at the time of Jesus, the second part is a running commentary where he goes through the Passion story in 13 steps and at every step looks what each Evangelist wrote and compares and contrasts these with each other and other sources. The third part is essentially a wrap up of the second part where he comments on the agreements and disagreements and the fourth part his take on what `really' happened 2,000 years ago on the day of the crucifixion of Jesus. My thoughts: I enjoyed his running commentary and the way he compares and contrasts the various accounts and found his conclusions on the whole quite plausible. Also the survey of the historical background and specifically the Jewish legal system at the time was very interesting. Grade: 8 out of 10

As with his other books,"Resurrection" and "The Nativity", Vermes seeks to separate fact from fiction and religious tradition---stories that have accumulated over the years without any basis in fact, stories that were included over trhe years to promote a particular theological view... The best way to put it is described by noted Christian writer and speaker, Ellsworth Kallas: "The Gospels are like political biographies, written by people seeking to emphasize certain points to certain audiences...." Nothing wrong with that, nothing at all...but what about the facts, the facts, mam, nothng but the facts, as Jack Webb used to say in the old "Dragnet" TV series. That's what Vermes does: give us the facts, nothing but the facts from a dispassionate "Lay-It-Out-There" perspective. He takes various Gospel accounts of the Passion and compares them, noting where some timing sequences are just impossible, and, untimately, pointing to John as probably the most historically accurante Gospel. Also points out that the Gospels seek to minimize Pilate's responsibilty in the Cruxification, casting more blame on the Jews, when in reality, when the Gospels were written, the writers were seeking to convert Romans and other Gentiles to the faith, having for the most part, given up on converting Jews. Hence, they "went light" on Pilate and followed the anti-Jewish tenor of the times in which the Gospels were written. A very good book. Very informative and provocative. So, Who Really Did Kill Jesus? Read the Book. Then you will know...

In this fascinating book, Geza Vermes examines the different accounts of the crucifixion in the four Gospels. They are incoherent and contradictory in certain respects. His aim is to find the real history that lurks within. Mark, Matthew, Luke and John are thus subjected to a stringent critical scrutiny in order to define, evaluate and interpret the differences with expert knowledge underpinned by common sense. The Prologue sets out the key questions, for example the strange change of attitude of the ordinary people towards the Nazarene; they flocked to him to hear his words and to be healed, but during the crucifixion they are portrayed as suddenly hating him. Serious students of the Gospels cannot fail to notice this inexplicable contrast. This is one of the questions examined by Vermes: why the evangelists presented such an extraordinary change in attitude. He also looks at how the Gospel accounts relate to one another, how they conform to Jewish and Roman reality from non-New Testament sources, and what motivated the various chronicles of the crucifixion. Vermes explores these problems and then attempts to find answers of what really transpired on the day of the crucifixion. Chapter One: Literary & Historical Preliminaries, includes sections on the sources, Jewish history and legal systems in force in Judea at the time of Jesus: the historical background, the Roman provincial system, the biblical legal system, Jewish law courts according to the Mishna, death penalties, and the temple authorities and Jesus. In Chapter Two: The Evangelists' Account of the Passion, the author sketches, interprets and queries the way that the evangelists describe the events during the final day of the life of Jesus, from the Last Supper to his death and burial. It includes, to mention a few: the arrest, the interrogation, the night trial, the morning meeting of the Sanhedrin, Pilate, Herod Antipas, the crucifixion, the death and burial. In Chapter Three: The Passion Accounts Compared With One Another and with Sources from Outside the New Testament, Vermes considers the agreements on seven incidents of the Passion account and the five disagreements. Here is included the content of the 4 Gospel narratives in parallel columns. Then follow comments on (a) the general agreements (b) disagreements between the Synoptics and John (c) some peculiarities in Luke. Chapter Four: Denouement, provides the findings, including a reconstruction of the sequence of events from the Thursday evening to Friday 14 Nissan or 7th April AD 30 which was the eve of Passover. The Epilogue discusses the leading actors in the Passover narrative: The Jews, Caiaphas, Pilate and Jesus Christ. As for the Jewish people, the only rational explanation of why the evangelists portrayed them as hostile to Jesus, is the obvious anti-Judaism of the early Gentile Church. Caiaphas is seen as an efficient quisling, Pilate is whitewashed; in reality he was brutal and cruel as is evident from many oth

This book is a mere 122 pages but it does a good job of covering all the major historical issues surrounding Jesus' passion. However, at times, I wish it went into more detail as Vermes' conclusions are not always persuasive.