Sarx

The brilliant biblical scholar and former priest, Géza Vermes offers a review in of the Pope’s new book on Jesus in last Saturday’s Times. In the process he provides a reasonably good overview of the last century or so Jesus scholarship.

The change came about so promptly because academics and educated lay people realised that, in order to encounter the Jesus of flesh and blood, one had to break through the barrier constituted by the translation into Greek of the original Semitic, Aramaic-Hebrew, cultural and religious traditions aimed at the nonJewish Christians of Syria, Asia Minor, Egypt, Greece and Italy. Remember the saying, every translator is a traitor.

(Props to Ignatius “Insight” which, having ironically pre-decided the truth, seem to close their eyes to anything with which they pre-disagree.)

The main critique of the reviewer seems to be that the Pope did not write a scholarly – but rather devotional – work. But he claims to have written both. I’m not sure that’s possible – neither is the reviewer.

The title, Jesus of Nazareth, not “Jesus, the Son of God” or something similar, seemed to imply that the Pope was one of us, a seeker after historical truth. Indeed, his preface explicitly states that his study incorporates modern historical criticism, and is intended to portray Jesus as an “historical” figure “in the strict sense of the word”. [By which Vermes means without theological biases - DHR] I must confess, however, that my initial reaction was overoptimistic.

I’m sure the Pope wrote a good devotional, however: albeit marketing it under false advertising.