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Christian Beginnings

From Nazareth to Nicaea, AD 30-325

Dr Geza Vermes

$24.99

Paperback

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English
Penguin
24 July 2013
Geza Vermes, 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 enigmatic and little understood, shrouded in mystery and misunderstanding. With a brilliant forensic re-examination of all the key surviving texts of early Christianity, Vermes illuminates the origins of a faith and 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 the teachings of Jesus 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 that was worlds away from its humble origins. This book tells 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.

By:  
Imprint:   Penguin
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 198mm,  Width: 129mm,  Spine: 16mm
Weight:   213g
ISBN:   9780141037998
ISBN 10:   0141037997
Pages:   288
Publication Date:  
Recommended Age:   From 0 years
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  ELT Advanced ,  Primary
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

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.

Reviews for Christian Beginnings: From Nazareth to Nicaea, AD 30-325

The subject is not exactly the Christian Church, which makes an appearance effectively only half way through the text; it is Jesus - what he was, what he said he was, and what Christians said about him after his crucifixion. For anyone puzzling over such questions, this is an exciting and challenging port of call, sweeping aside much of the fuzzy thinking and special pleading that bedevils the study of sacred scripture ... [a] courteously expressed and witty little book -- Diarmaid MacCulloch The Times This book represents the summation of [Vermes's] thinking about the early history of Christianity. It is a challenging and engaging book that sets out to retrace the route by which a Jewish preacher in 1st-century Israel came to be declared as consubstantial and co-equal with the omnipotent, omniscient only God -- Stuart Kelly Scotsman A major contribution to our understanding of the historical Jesus Financial Times A magnum opus of early Christian history and one of the year's most significant titles Bookseller A very accessible and entertaining read -- Gareth Williams Scotland on Sunday BOOKS OF THE YEAR


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