Géza Vermes, (; 22 June 1924 – 8 May 2013) was a British

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...

Biblical scholar Biblical studies is the academic application of a set of diverse disciplines to the study of the Bible (the Old Testament and New Testament).''Introduction to Biblical Studies, Second Edition'' by Steve Moyise (Oct 27, 2004) pages 11–12 ...

, and

Judaist Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the M ...

Hungarian Jewish The history of the Jews in Hungary dates back to at least the Kingdom of Hungary, with some records even predating the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin in 895 CE by over 600 years. Written sources prove that Jewish communities lived i ...

descent—one who also served as a Catholic priest in his youth—and scholar specialized in the field of the history of religion, particularly

ancient Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the M ...

and

early Christianity Early Christianity (up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325) spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and beyond. Originally, this progression was closely connected to already established Jewish centers in the Holy Land and the Jewis ...

. He is best known for his complete translation of the

Dead Sea Scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls (also the Qumran Caves Scrolls) are ancient Jewish and Hebrew religious manuscripts discovered between 1946 and 1956 at the Qumran Caves in what was then Mandatory Palestine, near Ein Feshkha in the West Bank, on the ...

into English; his research focused on the Dead Sea Scrolls and other

Ancient Hebrew writings The earliest known precursor to Hebrew, an inscription in the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, is the Khirbet Qeiyafa Inscription (11th–10th century BCE), if it can be considered Hebrew at that early a stage. By far the most varied, extensive, and hist ...

Aramaic The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated i ...

such as the Targumim, and on the life and religion of Jesus. Vermes was one of the most important voices in contemporary Jesus research, Gerd Theissen, Annette Merz (1998), ''The historical Jesus: a comprehensive guide'', Fortress Press (translated from the German 1996 edition). Chapter 1: ''Quest of the historical Jesus'', pp. 1–16. and he has been described as the greatest Jesus scholar of his time. Vermes' written work on Jesus focuses principally on the Jewishness of the historical Jesus, as seen in the broader context of the narrative scope of

Jewish history Jewish history is the history of the Jews, and their nation, religion, and culture, as it developed and interacted with other peoples, religions, and cultures. Although Judaism as a religion first appears in Greek records during the Hellenisti ...

and

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing th ...

, while questioning and challenging the basis of the Christian doctrine on Jesus.

Biography

Vermes was born in

Makó Makó (, german: Makowa, yi, מאַקאָווע Makowe, ro, Macău or , sk, Makov) is a town in Csongrád County, in southeastern Hungary, from the Romanian border. It lies on the Maros River. Makó is home to 23,272 people and it has an area ...

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from the Middle Ages into the 20th century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coronation of the Hungarian monarch, c ...

, in 1924 to a family of Hungarian Jewish descent: Terézia Riesz, a schoolteacher, and Ernő Vermes, a liberal journalist. The Vermes family was of Jewish background but had given up religious practice by the mid-19th century. All three were baptised as

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

s when he was six; referring to his parents' conversion, he defined it as a way to escape from the rising tide of anti-Semitism in Europe (see also

Interwar period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the First World War to the beginning of the Second World War. The interwar period was relative ...

). In an interview with Rachel Kohn of the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-owne ...

in 1999 he stated: "In fact, I never was anything but a Jew with a temporary sort of outer vestment. I realized I ought to recognize my genuine identity." Nonetheless, his mother and father were murdered in

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europ ...

in 1944. Vermes attended a Catholic seminary. When he was eligible for college, in 1942, Jews were not accepted into Hungarian universities. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

he became a Catholic priest, but was not admitted into the Jesuit or Dominican orders because of his Jewish ancestry. Vermes was accepted into the Order of the Fathers of Notre-Dame de Sion, a French-Belgian order which prayed for the Jews. Later he moved to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

, where he studied under the French Jewish scholar

Georges Vajda Georges Vajda (18 November 1908 - 7 October 1981) was a French Arabist and Hebraist, scholar of Islam, and historian of medieval Jewish thought. Biography Georges Vajda was born in Budapest, Austria-Hungary and studied at the rabbinic seminary a ...

, a graduate of the Rabbinical Seminary of

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population o ...

. He studied then at the College St Albert and the

Catholic University of Leuven University of Leuven or University of Louvain (french: Université de Louvain, link=no; nl, Universiteit Leuven, link=no) may refer to: * Old University of Leuven (1425–1797) * State University of Leuven (1817–1835) * Catholic University of L ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

, where he specialized in Oriental history, civilizations and languages. In 1953, Vermes obtained a Doctorate of Theology with the first dissertation written on the

and its historical framework. In 1962 he completed a first translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls, later revised and much augmented. Also in Paris, Vermes befriended and worked with Paul Demann, a scholar, like him, of Hungarian Jewish origins. Together with a third collaborator, Renee Bloch, they battled doggedly against the anti-Semitic content in Catholic education and ritual of the time. The

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions), each lasting between 8 and ...

would later accept many of the trio's theological arguments. After researching the Dead Sea Scrolls in Paris for several years, Vermes had met Pamela Hobson Curle, a poet and scholar, disciple of the

Neo-Hasidic Neo-Hasidism, Neochassidut, or Neo-Chassidus, is an approach to Judaism in which people learn beliefs and practices of Hasidic Judaism, and incorporate it into their own lives or prayer communities, yet without formally joining a Hasidic group. ...

Jewish philosopher

Martin Buber Martin Buber ( he, מרטין בובר; german: Martin Buber; yi, מארטין בובער; February 8, 1878 – June 13, 1965) was an Austrian Jewish and Israeli philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of existentialism ...

, and the two fell in love. She was married and the mother of two children, but her marriage was in the process of ending. In 1958, after her divorce, and after Vermes left the priesthood, they married, remaining together and often collaborating on work, until her death in 1993. He also renounced Christianity and embraced his

Jewish identity Jewish identity is the objective or subjective state of perceiving oneself as a Jew and as relating to being Jewish. Under a broader definition, Jewish identity does not depend on whether a person is regarded as a Jew by others, or by an exte ...

, although not religious observance. He took up a teaching post at the

University of Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a UK public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick unive ...

. In 1965, after teaching

Biblical Hebrew Biblical Hebrew (, or , ), also called Classical Hebrew, is an archaic form of the Hebrew language, a language in the Canaanite branch of Semitic languages spoken by the Israelites in the area known as the Land of Israel, roughly west of t ...

for several years at University of Newcastle upon Tyne in the north of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, he joined the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, rising to become the first Oxford Professor of

Jewish Studies Jewish studies (or Judaic studies; he, מדעי היהדות, madey ha-yahadut, sciences of Judaism) is an academic discipline centered on the study of Jews and Judaism. Jewish studies is interdisciplinary and combines aspects of history (e ...

before his retirement in 1991; he subsequently directed the Oxford Forum for Qumran Research at the

Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies The Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies (OCHJS) is a recognised independent centre of the University of Oxford, England. Its research fellows teach on a variety of undergraduate and master's degrees in Oriental studies, and it publishe ...

. In 1970 he reconverted to Judaism as a liberal Jew, and became a member of the

Liberal Jewish Synagogue The Liberal Jewish Synagogue, or LJS ( he, קהל קדוש לב חדש, ''Qahal Kadosh Lev Chadash'', "Holy Congregation New Heart"), is a house of prayer in St John's Wood, London, founded in 1911. It is the oldest and largest member of Britai ...

of London. After the death of his first wife in 1993, he married Margaret Unarska in 1996 and adopted her son, Ian. Vermes died on 8 May 2013 at the age of 88.

Academic career

Vermes was one of the first scholars to examine the Dead Sea Scrolls after their discovery in 1947, and is the author of the standard translation into English of the Dead Sea Scrolls: ''The Dead Sea Scrolls in English'' (1962). He is one of the leading scholars in the field of the study of the historical Jesus (see Selected Publications, below) and together with

Fergus Millar Sir Fergus Graham Burtholme Millar, (; 5 July 1935 – 15 July 2019) was a British ancient historian and academic. He was Camden Professor of Ancient History at the University of Oxford between 1984 and 2002. He numbers among the most infl ...

and Martin Goodman, Vermes was responsible for substantially revising Emil Schurer's three-volume work, ''The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ'', His ''An Introduction to the Complete Dead Sea Scrolls,'' revised edition (2000), is a study of the collection at

Qumran Qumran ( he, קומראן; ar, خربة قمران ') is an archaeological site in the West Bank managed by Israel's Qumran National Park. It is located on a dry marl plateau about from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, near the Israeli ...

.Jesus Christ
" Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 8 November 2010 . Until his death, he was a Professor Emeritus of Jewish Studies and Emeritus Fellow of

Wolfson College, Oxford Wolfson College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Located in north Oxford along the River Cherwell, Wolfson is an all-graduate college with around sixty governing body fellows, in addition to both research a ...

, but continued to teach at the Oriental Institute in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. He had edited the ''

Journal of Jewish Studies A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a method of personal organization *Diary, a record of what happened over the course of a day or other period *Daybook, also known as a general journal, a ...

''JJS Online
Journal of Jewish Studies. from 1971 to his death, and from 1991 he had been director of the Oxford Forum for Qumran Research at the

. He inspired the creation of the British Association for Jewish Studies (BAJS) in 1975 and of the European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS) in 1981 and acted as founding president for both. Vermes was a Fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars s ...

; a Fellow of the European Academy of Arts, Sciences and Humanities; holder of an Oxford D. Litt. (1988) and of honorary doctorates from the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 1 ...

(1989),

University of Durham , mottoeng = Her foundations are upon the holy hills ( Psalm 87:1) , established = (university status) , type = Public , academic_staff = 1,830 (2020) , administrative_staff = 2,640 (2018/19) , chancellor = Sir Thomas Allen , vice_cha ...

(1990),

University of Sheffield , mottoeng = To discover the causes of things , established = – University of SheffieldPredecessor institutions: – Sheffield Medical School – Firth College – Sheffield Technical School – University College of Sheffield , type = Pu ...

(1994) and the Central European University of Budapest (2008). He was awarded the Wilhelm Bacher Memorial Medal by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1996), the Memorial Medal of the city of Makó, his place of birth (2008) and the keys of the cities of Monroe LA and Natchez MS (2009). He received a vote of congratulation from the US House of Representatives, proposed by the Representative of Louisiana on 17 September 2009. In the course of a lecture tour in the United States in September 2009, Vermes spoke at the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC S ...

in Chapel Hill, at

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist Jam ...

in Durham NC, at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

in Baltimore MD, and at the

University of Louisiana at Monroe The University of Louisiana Monroe (ULM) is a public university in Monroe, Louisiana. It is part of the University of Louisiana System. History ULM opened in 1931 as Ouachita Parish Junior College. Three years later it became the Northeast Cen ...

and at Baton Rouge. On 23 January 2012 Penguin Books celebrated at Wolfson College, Oxford, the golden jubilee of Vermes's ''The Dead Sea Scrolls in English'', which has sold an estimated half-a-million copies worldwide. A "Fiftieth anniversary" edition has been issued in the

Penguin Classics Penguin Classics is an imprint of Penguin Books under which classic works of literature are published in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Korean among other languages. Literary critics see books in this series as important members of the West ...

series.

Historical Jesus

Vermes was a prominent scholar in the contemporary field of historical Jesus research. The contemporary approach, known as the " third quest", emphasizes Jesus's Jewish identity and context. It portrays Jesus as founding a renewal movement within Judaism. Vermes described Jesus as a 1st-century Jewish holy man, a commonplace view in academia but novel to the public when Vermes began publishing. Contrary to certain other scholars (such as E. P. Sanders),Sanders, E. P. ''The historical figure of Jesus''. Penguin, 1993. Vermes concludes that Jesus did not reach out to non-Jews. For example, he attributes positive references to

Samaritans Samaritans (; ; he, שומרונים, translit=Šōmrōnīm, lit=; ar, السامريون, translit=as-Sāmiriyyūn) are an ethnoreligious group who originate from the ancient Israelites. They are native to the Levant and adhere to Samarit ...

in the gospels not to Jesus himself but to early Christian editing. He suggests that, properly understood, the historical Jesus is a figure that Jews should find familiar and attractive. This historical Jesus, however, is so different from the Christ of faith that Christians, says Vermes, may well want to rethink the fundamentals of their faith.Vermes, Geza. ''The authentic Gospel of Jesus''. London, Penguin Books. 2004. Epilogue. pp. 398–417. Important works on this topic include '' Jesus the Jew'' (1973), which describes Jesus as a thoroughly Jewish Galilean charismatic, ''The Gospel of Jesus the Jew'' (1981), which examines Jewish parallels to Jesus's teaching and '' Christian Beginnings'' (2012), which traces the evolution of the figure of Jesus from Jewish charismatic in the

synoptic Gospels The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are referred to as the synoptic Gospels because they include many of the same stories, often in a similar sequence and in similar or sometimes identical wording. They stand in contrast to John, whose ...

to equality with God in the Council of Nicea (325 CE). He also expounded this theme in the controversial television miniseries, '' Jesus: The Evidence'' (Channel 4, 1984). Vermes believed it is possible "to retrieve the authentic Gospel of Jesus, his first-hand message to his original followers."

The historical Jesus can be retrieved only within the context of first-century Galilean Judaism. The Gospel image must therefore be inserted into the historical canvas of Palestine in the first century CE, with the help of the works of
Flavius Josephus Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for '' The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly ...
, the Dead Sea Scrolls and early
rabbinic literature Rabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, is the entire spectrum of rabbinic writings throughout Jewish history. However, the term often refers specifically to literature from the Talmudic era, as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic w ...
. Against this background, what kind of picture of Jesus emerges from the Gospels? That of a rural holy man, initially a follower of the movement of repentance launched by another holy man,
John the Baptist John the Baptist or , , or , ;Wetterau, Bruce. ''World history''. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1994. syc, ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕ݂ܵܢܵܐ, Yoḥanān Maʿmḏānā; he, יוחנן המטביל, Yohanān HaMatbil; la, Ioannes Bapti ...
. In the hamlets and villages of Lower Galilee and the lakeside, Jesus set out to preach the coming of the Kingdom of God within the lifetime of his generation and outlined the religious duties his simple listeners were to perform to prepare themselves for the great event.

Selected publications

* ''Scripture and Tradition in

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in th ...

Haggadic Aggadah ( he, ''ʾAggāḏā'' or ''Haggāḏā''; Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: אַגָּדְתָא ''ʾAggāḏəṯāʾ''; "tales, fairytale, lore") is the non-legalistic exegesis which appears in the classical rabbinic literature of Juda ...

studies (Studia post-biblica)'', Brill, Leiden 1961 * '' Jesus the Jew: A Historian's Reading of the

Gospels Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

'', Minneapolis, Fortress Press 1973 * ''Post-Biblical Jewish Studies'', Brill, Leiden, 1975 * ''The Dead Sea Scrolls:

in Perspective'', Minneapolis, Fortress Press 1977 * ''Jesus and the World of

'', Minneapolis, Fortress Press 1983 * ''The

Essenes The Essenes (; Hebrew: , ''Isiyim''; Greek: Ἐσσηνοί, Ἐσσαῖοι, or Ὀσσαῖοι, ''Essenoi, Essaioi, Ossaioi'') were a mystic Jewish sect during the Second Temple period that flourished from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st ce ...

According to the Classical Sources'' (with Martin Goodman), Sheffield Academic Press 1989 * ''The Religion of Jesus the Jew'', Minneapolis, Fortress Press 1993 * ''The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English'', Penguin 1997 (2004 ed.) (Fiftieth anniversary ed. 2011 ) * ''The Changing Faces of Jesus'', London, Penguin 2001 * ''Jesus in his Jewish Context'', Minneapolis, Fortress Press 2003 * ''The Authentic

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

of Jesus'', London, Penguin 2004 * ''The Passion'', London, Penguin 2005 . * ''Who's Who in the Age of Jesus'', London, Penguin 2005 * '' The Nativity: History and Legend'', London, Penguin 2006 * ''The Resurrection: History and Myth'', Doubleday Books 2008 . * ''Searching for the Real Jesus'', London, SCM Press 2010 * ''The Story of the Scrolls: The Miraculous Discovery and True Significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls'', London, Penguin 2010 * ''Jesus: Nativity – Passion – Resurrection'', London, Penguin 2010 * ''Jesus in the Jewish World'', London, SCM Press 2010 * '' Christian Beginnings. From Nazareth to Nicaea, AD 30–325'', London, Allen Lane 2012 * ''The True Herod'', London, Bloomsbury, 2014 For more details see his autobiography, ''Providential Accidents'', London, SCM Press, 1998 ; Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham MD, 1998 .

References

External links