Providential Accidents

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.

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.

Booknews

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)

Geza Vermes is a fellow of the British Academy and professor emeritus of Jewish Studies at the University of Oxford.