THE RESURRECTION, by Geza Vermes, is reviewed by Ziauddin Sardar in the London Times:

TWO DAYS AFTER THE Crucifixion of Jesus, on April 9, AD30, a perplexing event occurred. According to one story the dead Christ was reborn. The Resurrection was a physical event, a reality that occurred in a given place at a specific time. What evidence is there for this phenomenon, the cardinal belief of Christianity? Are there other possibilities? Did something entirely different happen?

These are the questions that Geza Vermes sets out to explore in this deceptively slender volume. His main concern is to establish facts, a feat he accomplishes through concise textual analysis and precise arguments. Vermes, an authority on the Dead Sea Scrolls and a renowned scholar of the Bible, dissects what the Old and New Testaments say about resurrection, and how Saint Paul propagated the idea, with an acute eye for detail. The forensic historian takes us step by step through crucial episodes from the Crucifixion to the treatment of the body, from the accounts of the witnesses to the visions of the Disciples. The end product is as compelling as it is revealing.

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