The Questioning Christian

Geza Vermes Interview

Written by

D. C. Toedt III

in

I just stumbled across this long 1998 interview with religious historian Geza Vermes by the Australian Broadcasting Company.  I was Google-searching Vermes, who is professor emeritus of Jewish Studies at the University of Oxford, because I’m currently reading one of his books, The Authentic Gospel of Jesus.  The ABC interview was occasioned by the publication of Vermes’s autobiography Providential Accidents.

From the interview, here are some interesting biographical points about Vermes, some but not all of which I’d known before:

  • His name is pronounced Ge-za Ver-mesh.
  • He was born in 1924 to a Jewish family.
  • When he was 7, his family converted to Roman Catholicism, and he was baptized. 
  • His parents both died in the Holocaust, their prior conversions notwithstanding.
  • He was ordained priest in an order founded to convert Jews to Catholicism.
  • He published the first English translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
  • He left the priesthood, and the church, in part as a result of his study of the Scrolls. 
  • He now belongs to a liberal Jewish synagogue.

Comments

2 responses to “Geza Vermes Interview”

  1. Kate Avatar
    Kate

    I am stunned when I see people who still push ‘following’ a man they don’t know and really have no idea what he even taught. The bible we have been given as the word of god is a pure fabrication of men whose agenda’s were not in the best interest of the common man or woman. Religion has been and still remains a tool of deception and control. Religion causes hate, division and bloodshed. The RCC insured the christian religion would remain and triumph simply by the use of brute force. Millions were killed and tortured by those thugs and any who wished to keep their lives and the safety of their loved ones intact had only one choice and that was believe or die. They destroyed libraries that housed handwritten text that in many cases were original with no copies. Books by the hundreds were banned/forbidden and the penalty for keeping or reading one of them was certain death. There has not been a more vile and evil institution than the RCC and the offspring she has produced.
    Several of the translators of the DSS were to eventually leave the church and turn from christianity because of what they found in those scrolls. Hell, that should tell the world something is very very wrong. The rest of us will never really know the full account of exactly what those scrolls said and only get a few bits and pieces. Strugnell who was in charge of the translation team for about 40 years gave an interview after having one drink too many and said what a horrible religion Judaism was. He was fired the next day. Allegro had his life and career destroyed for publishing what he was finding. Catholic priest Jozef Milik developed a drinking problem, left the translation team along with leaving the priesthood and the church. He married later and his wife helped him overcome his alcohol problem. He also left the church due to what he found in the scrolls. Geza Vermes left the church and married also due to what he found in the scrolls. The churches still teach that the scrolls just prove that the bible is true and was inspired by a god. What bs! Also, if you pay attention to the words of jesus, he was a rebel and he hated gentiles. He probably existed but was not a very nice person. Why the hell can’t people let go of their emotional security blankets and look around at the suffering of their fellowman and get off their pious butts and do something good. All any of us ever needed to know or to practice was to treat each other as equals and live by the golden rule. That would have solved any problem this world encountered, but religion has been there to bring war, death and misery. My god is bigger than your god! We are right and you are wrong! Our god tells us to kill the infidel/pagan/heather/nonbelievers! How very hateful and ignorant that is. What kind of monster would create such a place as an eternal burning hell? He can go there himself! What kind of god would condone and even order the rape of innocent women and little girls? What kind of god would make his ‘chosen’ kill and eat their own children and what kind of sorry demented parents would do it! I would tell that god to go to hell. What kind of god smears shit on the faces of his own people? What kind of god orders the ripping open of pregnant women? It is very scary that we are now in the 21st century and people still have minds that live in the dark ages. Whoever jesus was, he was a lunatic. You don’t know jesus and you don’t know who/what god is if there is a god.

    Reply
  2. Clayton Avatar
    Clayton

    I feel incredible empathy for people who choose to so completely misunderstand the entire philosophy of a thing they dislike. Truely there are people out there who think only the worst about their fellow man/women. The pursuit of knowledge is an inheretly dangerous, but often necessary condition of the human mind. Thanks to all of those who take up that pursuit in the best interest of everyone, and continue in thier quest despite the incessant ramblings of the unenlightened.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More posts