Géza Vermès

There can be no doubt that Jesus, 'a religious genius' as Geza Vermes describes him, lived and taught in Palestine some 2000 years ago. The influence he has had is incalculable. How though can we distinguish between the doctrines shaped to the needs of the burgeoning Christian church and the original views laid out by Jesus himself? How can we dig back through the additions, misinterpretations and confusions of later writers and two millennia of tradition to get back to the authentic gospel of Jesus? In his new book, Vermes subjects all the sayings of Jesus to brilliantly informed scrutiny. The result is a book of unique value and novelty-scraping aside the accretions of centuries to come as close as we can hope to be to the true Jesus.

The manuscripts found in the Qumran caves, dating from about 200 BC to AD 70, are associated with the Essene sect described by several classical authors. Yet despite their immense importance, Geza Vermes argues, scholarly restrictive practices were responsible for 'the academic scandal par excellence of the twentieth century', which until recently kept many key documents hidden from public view. The Dead Sea Scrolls in English provides reliable, direct access to these fascinating documents. Established as the standard English version of the non-biblical material, is now in its fourth edition and has been extensively expanded and updated to include twenty-six newly translated scroll texts, a recent introduction discussing development in Qumran scholarship and, for the first time a full inventory of all the scrolls made available in 1991. Introductory chapters explain the background and outline the history, customs and beliefs of the sectarian community as well as the significance of their writings. The Dead Sea Scrolls in English acts as an authoritative guide for scholar students and all those interested in ancient Judaism and nascent Christianity.

Readers of the present volume are offered lively and often humorous accounts of the impact of Jesus the Jew on Christian and Jewish readers; of the value of Josephus as a historical source regarding John the Baptist, James the brother of the Lord, and Jesus; the historical implications of ancient Jewish biblical exegesis; of the inside story of the monumental recasting by Vermes and his friends of Emil Schürer's History of the Jewish people; and of the sacrifice of Isaac and the story of the first-century Galilean rabbi, Hanina ben Dosa. The final two essays, written in 2007 and 2010, are particularly noteworthy, the first propounding a fresh and revolutionary approach to methodology in the study of the historical Jesus and the second restating and reinforcing Vermes's stance in the half-a-century long Son of Man debate.

Bestselling author Nicole Jordan writes intensely seductive tales of wicked pleasures and undeniable love. Now she tempts readers with her most daring romantic adventure yet. . . .To escape marriage to a despised man twice her age, Lady Aurora Demming makes a scandalous arrangement with Nicholas Sabine, a dangerously handsome American facing execution for murder and piracy. She agrees to become his wife for one day . . . and one glorious, intoxicating night. Widowed, Aurora returns to London society with Nicholas's orphaned sister at her side to face a lifetime without love--until her "dead" husband returns, insisting that she honor their vows and haunting her dreams with promises of forbidden desire. . . .From the Paperback edition.