Retail Price: $39.95 CenturyOne Price: $39.95 You Save: $0.00 (0%) Availability: Not Yet Available Format: Hardcover,  288pp. ISBN: 9781846141508 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: July 5, 2012 Book Information: Description Reviews Reader's Index About the Author Table of Contents Customer Reviews Find Similar Books Average Customer Review:

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Geza Vermes, the author of The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls and acknowledged expert on the life and times of Jesus, tells the enthralling story of early Christianity and the origins of a religion.

The creation of the Christian Church is one of the most important stories in the development of the world's history, but also one of the most poorly understood.

With a forensic, brilliant re-examination of all the key surviving texts, Geza Vermes traces the evolution of the figure of Jesus from the man he was - a prophet fully recognisable as the successor to other Jewish holy men of the Old Testament - to what he came to represent: a mysterious, otherworldly being at the heart of a major new religion. As his teachings spread across the eastern Mediterranean, hammered into place by Paul, John and their successors, they were transformed in the space of three centuries into a centralised, state-backed creed worlds away from its humble origins. This is the captivating story of how a man came to be hailed as the Son consubstantial with God, and of how a revolutionary, anti-conformist Jewish sub-sect became the official state religion of the Roman Empire.

This fascinating book is Vermes's masterpiece, pulling apart the many myths and legends to focus on the true figure of Jesus and the birth of one of the world's major religions.

"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 in Sunday Times

Geza Vermes was born in Hungary in 1924. He studied in Budapest and Louvain, and was the first Professor of Jewish Studies at Oxford. He is one of the world's greatest experts on early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English 7th Edition