Géza Vermes

Géza Vermes or Vermès (22 June 1924 – 8 May 2013) was a noted authority on the Dead Sea Scrolls and ancient works in Aramaic such as the Targums, and on the life and religion of Jesus. He was one of the most important voices in contemporary Jesus research, and he has been described as the greatest Jesus scholar of his time.

Vermes' written work on Jesus focuses principally on Jesus the Jew, as seen in the broader context of the narrative scope of Jewish history and theology, while questioning the basis of some Christian teachings on Jesus.

Vermes was born in Makó, Hungary, in 1924 to parents of Jewish descent, (His family, however, had not practiced Judaism since the early 19th century.) All three were baptised as Roman Catholics when he was seven. His mother and journalist father died in the Holocaust. His mother, Terézia, was a schoolteacher, and his father, Erno, a journalist and poet who associated with leading Hungarian intellectuals. Continue . . .

• New York Times
• Forward Magazine
• Gnosis Org
• BBC episode
• Wikipedia

Selected publications

• Scripture and Tradition in Judaism: Haggadic studies (Studia post-biblica), Brill, Leiden 1961 ISBN 90-04-03626-1
• Jesus the Jew: A Historian's Reading of the Gospels, Minneapolis, Fortress Press 1973 ISBN 0-8006-1443-7
• Post-Biblical Jewish Studies, Brill, Leiden, 1975 ISBN 90-04-04160-5
• The Dead Sea Scrolls: Qumran in Perspective, Minneapolis, Fortress Press 1977 ISBN 0-8006-1435-6
• Jesus and the World of Judaism, Minneapolis, Fortress Press 1983 ISBN 0-8006-1784-3
• The Essenes According to the Classical Sources (with Martin Goodman), Sheffield Academic Press 1989 ISBN 1-85075-139-0
• The Religion of Jesus the Jew, Minneapolis, Fortress Press 1993 ISBN 0-8006-2797-0
• The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English, Penguin 1997 ISBN 978-0-14-044952-5 (2004 ed.) (Fiftieth anniversary ed. 2011 ISBN 978-0-141-19731-9)
• The Changing Faces of Jesus, London, Penguin 2001 ISBN 0-14-026524-4
• Jesus in his Jewish Context, Minneapolis, Fortress Press 2003 ISBN 0-8006-3623-6* The Authentic Gospel of Jesus, London, Penguin 2004 ISBN 0-14-100360-X
• The Passion, London, Penguin 2005 ISBN 0-14-102132-2.
• Who's Who in the Age of Jesus, London, Penguin 2005 ISBN 0-14-051565-8
• The Nativity: History and Legend, London, Penguin 2006 ISBN 0-14-102446-1
• The Resurrection: History and Myth, Doubleday Books 2008 ISBN 0-385-52242-8.
• Searching for the Real Jesus, London, SCM Press 2010 ISBN 978-0-334-04358-4
• The Story of the Scrolls: The Miraculous Discovery and True Significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls, London, Penguin 2010 ISBN 978-0-14-104615-0
• Jesus: Nativity - Passion - Resurrection, London, Penguin 2010 ISBN 978-0-14-104622-8
• Jesus in the Jewish World, London, SCM Press 2010 ISBN 978-0-334-04379-9
• Christian Beginnings from Nazareth to Nicaea, AD 30-325, London, Allen Lane 2012 ISBN 978-1-846-14150-8
• For more details see his autobiography, Providential Accidents, London, SCM Press, 1998 ISBN 0-334-02722-5; Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham MD, 1998 ISBN 0-8476-9340-6.