Authors: Geza Vermes
ISBN-13: 9780847693405, ISBN-10: 0847693406
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Date Published: November 1998
Edition: (Non-applicable)
Geza Vermes is known world-wide as an expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls and for his pioneering work, "Jesus the Jew". But in addition to that he is the living embodiment of Jewish-Christian relations in the context of an honest quest for the truth. Few scholars have had such a colorful and eventful life, the course of which he describes here. Born into a Hungarian Jewish family which later converted to Christianity, he received a Catholic education and was later ordained priest after the turmoil of the War. The quest for membership in a religious order led him to the Sion Fathers, in Louvain and then in Paris, where among other things he was introduced to biblical studies and became fascinated with the newly discovered Dead Sea Scrolls. Subsequent emotional turmoil from conflicting pressures made him ill , but a series of "Providential Accidents" which gave this book its title brought him to England, marriage, and a new fulfilled life, first in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and then in Oxford, and to a public reassertian of his Jewishness. As well as telling a fascinating personal story, this book provides a vivid insider's account of developments in Scrolls research and of the lengthy battle with procrastinating editors over the "academic scandal of the century." These memoirs shed much light on the deep personal friendships and antagonisms and the complex, non-scholarly factors which accompany even committed study of the Bible, Qumran, and the Gospels.
Author Biography: Geza Vermes is a fellow of the British Academy and professor emeritus of Jewish Studies at the University of Oxford.
The autobiography of Dead Sea Scrolls scholar Vermes (b. 1924). The narrative follows him from his youth as a Jew in Hungary, through his conversion to Catholicism and his eventual reconciliation with Judaism. Throughout, the vicissitudes of his scholarly career are prominent. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
List of Illustrations | ||
Prologue: 10 June 1993 | ||
Pt. 1 | From Mako to Budapest (1924-1946) | |
1 | Roots | 3 |
2 | Childhood Memories (1926-1937) | 10 |
3 | Unread Signs of Doom (1938-1942) | 18 |
4 | From Boredom to Nightmare (1942-1944) | 27 |
5 | From Darkness to Light (1945-1946) | 40 |
Pt. 2 | At Notre-Dame de Sion (Louvain-Paris 1946-1957) | |
6 | The Fathers of Notre-Dame de Sion: Prelude (1946-1948) | 53 |
7 | Discovery of the Bible (1948-1950) | 62 |
8 | Meeting the Dead Sea Scrolls (1950-1952) | 71 |
9 | Jerusalem and Qumran (September-December 1952) | 86 |
10 | Paris and the Cahiers (1953-1955) | 98 |
11 | The Turmoil of Transition (1955-1957) | 111 |
Pt. 3 | Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1957-1965) | |
12 | Finding my Feet in Newcastle (1957-1958) | 123 |
13 | Laying the Foundations (1958-1965) | 134 |
Pt. 4 | The Golden Years of Oxford (1965-1993) | |
14 | The Wonderland of Oxford | 155 |
15 | The Journal and the New English Schurer | 171 |
16 | The Battle over the Scrolls: A Personal Account | 188 |
17 | Jesus the Jew and his Religion | 210 |
18 | Harvest Time | 225 |
Epilogue: Late Afternoon Sunshine (1993- ) | 231 | |
Notes | 233 | |
Index | 249 |