The Authentic Gospel of Jesus

Vermes takes a look, from his viewpoint as a Jewish scholar, at how much of the sayings and deeds of Jesus we can regard as "gospel"! that is, authentic. Provides a very good cultural context for much that is puzzling if read "straight". My take on it is that if we absorb no other truth from the Bible except to love God and to love our neighbour as we love ourselves, we have understood everything that is needful.

The Authentic Gospel of Jesus
Geza Vermes
April 6, 2015
In my new religious phase, I sent out to read this for lent. Geza Vermes is a very deep scholar of Aramaic and Greek, with knowledge of canonical texts and commentary. He attempts to find passages in the gospels that were probably words, or nearly words, of Jesus. He uses a general criterion of surprise. Many statements in works written 50 to 100 years after Jesus probable death date were apologetics for the early church; those that seem to have no purpose in justifying the consolidation of the church were more likely to be orginal. He also believes that Jesus expressed himself in hyperbole. He sketches his belief that Jesus expected to see the kingdom of God established during his show more lifetime, was surprised at his death on the cross, and was preaching only to Jews. The multiple chapters classifying statements, offering brief explanations of the passages from the gospels, sometimes referring back to previous passages, are for specialists, only the last chapter and epilogue explain the character of the gospels overall. show less

I find his logic more convincing than that of the Jesus seminar.
Folio Society Edition.

In The Authentic Gospel of Jesus, renowned biblical scholar Geza Vermes distils a lifetime's knowledge to examine every saying attributed to Jesus and return to the true teachings of the man behind the messiah. Who was the real Jesus? What was the original message of the charismatic Jewish healer and moralist who changed the world? 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 show more of later writers and two millennia of tradition to get back to the authentic gospel of Jesus? In The Authentic Gospel of Jesus, 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. 'The greatest Jesus scholar of his generation'
Sunday Telegraph 'A pleasure to read from cover to cover'
Literary Review 'One of the most commonsensical, wise books on the Bible ever published. Nobody can fail to be impressed by the magisterial scholarship and knowledge'
Daily Express 'Vermes has made his fine scholarship wonderfully accessible to the general reader' Karen Armstrong, Sunday Times 'A truly fascinating book'
Independent on Sunday Geza Vermes is director of the Forum for Qumran Research at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. His books, published by Penguin, include The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English, The Story of the Scrolls and The Changing Faces of Jesus as well as the 'Jesus' trilogy: Nativity, Passion and Resurrection. show less