Author: Geza Vermes File Type: epub The Nativity is the very heart of the Christian tradition. For more than 2,000 years, the story of Jesus birth has been told and retold, mythologized and sentimentalized. In The Nativity, Geza Vermes untangles centuries of storytelling and places the birth and the events surrounding it within their historical context. Vermes examines every aspect of the Christmas story the prophetic star, the journey of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, the miraculous birth in the stable, the arrival of the magi, and the murderous decree of Herod. Delving into all the available evidenceincluding the New Testament Infancy narratives of Matthew and Luke, Jewish documents of the period, and classical literary and historical sourcesVermes explains where actual history ends and legend begins. A masterful work of biblical scholarship, The Nativity penetrates the deeper meaning of the New Testament. By clarifying what belongs to real history and what derives from mans hopeful and creative religious imagination, it gives readers a new and more powerful understanding of the events celebrated every Christmas season. **From Publishers Weekly Despite the covers gold-stamped Old English script and stylized medieval Nativity scene, this book does not belong in a display of inspirational Christmas gifts for great-aunts, unless the aunties are willing to consider that Matthew and Luke often contradict each other that Jesus was probably born in the spring that virgin may simply have meant prepubescent that the census that supposedly brought Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem never happened (and anyway, Jesus was more likely born in Nazareth) or that virgin births and guiding stars were quite common in classical literature of the time. As Vermes notes, the truth ...belongs only very slightly to history and mostly derives from mans hopeful and creative religious imagination. Vermes, perhaps the worlds foremost authority on the Dead Sea Scrolls, writes as a scholar, not as an iconoclast. Dismayed that Christmas has become the climax of a season of overspending, overeating and uncontrolled merrymaking, he wants to set the record straight. Some readers, however-even those who value understanding the first-century historical and literary context-may not be satisfied with his conclusion that the ultimate purpose of the Infancy Gospels seems to be the creation of a prologue, enveloping the newborn Jesus with an aura of marvel and enigma. (Nov. 6) Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. Review Praise for Geza Vermes and The Nativity The greatest Jesus scholar of his generation. Sunday Telegraph (UK) Vermes sets about painstaking literary and historical analysis with refreshing humor and enthusiasm and argues his case with clarity and skill as he uncovers how the events of the nativity were constructed by evangelists to fulfill Old Testament prophecies and Jewish traditions. The Guardian (UK)

Author: Katherine Bode File Type: pdf During the 19th century, throughout the Anglophone world, most fiction was first published in periodicals. In Australia, newspapers were not only the main source of periodical fiction, but the main source of fiction in general. Because of their importance as fiction publishers, and because they provided Australian readers with access to stories from around the worldfrom Britain, America and Australia, as well as Austria, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand, Russia, South Africa, and beyondAustralian newspapers represent an important record of the transnational circulation and reception of fiction in this period. Investigating almost 10,000 works of fiction in the worlds largest collection of mass-digitized historical newspapers (the National Library of Australias Trove database), A World of Fiction reconceptualizes how fiction traveled globally, and was received and understood locally, in the 19th century. Katherine Bodes innovative approach to the new digital collections that are transforming research in the humanities are a model of how digital tools can transform how we understand digital collections and interpret literatures in the past. **Review A major international intervention in the fields of book history and digital humanities research, and a major recalibration of the relationship between Australian literature and world literary studies. A World of Fiction will have a significant impact. Professor Robert Dixon, The University of Sydney A terrific intellectual force. Excellent and lucid. This is a first-rate contribution to digital humanities and literary textual scholarship. Johanna Drucker, UCLA Bode has been influential in Australian literary studies since she began publishing about a decade ago, and there is no doubt this book will be a field-defining intervention. It is a model of scholarly work, especially in its redefining of the literary system. Literary history and digital literary humanities are lucky to have such an intellectually accomplished and confident worker in the field. Philip Mead, University of Western Australia About the Author Katherine Bode is Associate Professor of Literary and Textual Studies at the Australian National University.