GEZA VERMES'S THE PASSION is reviewed by the London Times ("Religion: The Passion by Geza Vermes"). It concludes:

The central tension that Vermes highlights is that between history and faith. How can a historical document also be the basis of a religion? The Gospels try to square the circle by both recording events and shaping them to determine readers� response. While absolute objectivity may be impossible, this biased approach has left them increasingly scorned in our secular age. Which, Vermes states, is a loss.

To get into this beguiling book, you will need first to overlook a rather clumsy play by the publisher for the same audience who saw Mel Gibson�s The Passion of the Christ. The subtitle of the book and its glossy jacket ape the feel of �book of the film� editions. But once you are inside the pages, you realise it is the polar opposite of Gibson�s muddled literalism and gore. This is subtle, teasing and erudite stuff. It may be ultimately inconclusive, as of course it has to be, but it will give Easter a whole new dimension for all but the most closed of minds.

Vermes always has an interesting perspective, built both upon critical sifting of the material in the Gospels and on placing the sifted material in its ancient historical, philological, and geographic context.

If you're in Britain, you can get the book at a discount through the Times. See the bottom of the article.