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The Death of the Messiah: From Gethsemane to the Grave
Hardcover, no dust jacket. VG. Slip case VG. Boards lightly bumped. Text crisp. Bindings firm.
1608 pages, Hardcover
Published February 1, 1994
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About the author
Raymond E. Brown
138 books102 followersRoman Catholic priest, member of Society of Saint-Sulpice and a prominent biblical scholar, esteemed by not only his colleagues of the same confession. One of the first Roman Catholic scholars to apply historical-critical analysis to the Bible.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 20, 2014
I took it upon myself to read this enormous tome as part of my Lenten penance for this year. Now, by Lenten penance, I am not referring to spiritual reading that will bring me closer to God during the season of Lent. This book will definitely not do that. Reading this tome was like giving up meat or taking a cold shower or wearing a celise - it is a painful undertaking that I did to atone for sin.
So why was this book such a chore to read? For one thing, it is enormous, over 1300 pages of text plus another 300+ pages of appendices. "War and Peace" is actually shorter than this book. Add to that the writing style of Raymond Brown, who is a scholar writing for scholars who does not feel compelled to use readable prose and who greatly overuses abbreviations and run on sentences. Brown repeats many of the sins of modern Biblical scholars, such as the refusal to take the meaning of the biblical text at face value, the devaluation of interpretations of early Christian sources in favor of imaginary sources such as "Q" and "Pre-Mark", and a tendency to discount the supernatural and the prophetic.
So why did I give such a book 4 stars? Frankly, if you want to understand what modern Biblical scholars have to say about the Passion Narratives of Christ, this book is THE one to read. Brown lines up the passion narratives of all four gospels, along with the passion narrative of the apocryphal "Gospel of Peter" and discusses the differences and similarities of each one. He explores the secular histories of such writers as Josephus and Tacitus and ties those into what the gospel writers had to say. He discusses the Greek text at length (in my opinion, perhaps too much at length) and contrasts how the wording in the Greek may point out differences in the perspectives of the Gospel writers. Despite his position as perhaps the most pre-eminent of modern Catholic scripture scholars, Brown treats the writings of the Church fathers far more extensively than I have seen among other bibilical scholars, and he discusses their views without the usual dismissal and condescention of other biblical scholars. What's more, he is deeply knowledgeable about all the most current biblical scholarship, and he can evaluate the positions of most scholars and discuss their merits.
The book starts out very slow, with an in depth discussion of the origins of the Gospels. By the time Brown actually dives into the text, however, the discussion is far more focused and interesting. Brown breaks up the Gospel discussions about the Passion from the Garden of Gethsemane to the laying of Christ in the tomb and divides them into scenes, and he lays out each scene as described in each of the gospels and dives into them, going into all the linguistic, historical, theological and other aspects of each scene. By the time you finish each section, you will feel like you are an expert on that passage of scripture.
I would not recommend that you read this book for spiritual reading or for any sustained reading for that matter. This book is definitely a reference book that should be picked up and read in small chunks as required for your study of certain passages of scripture. But if you want to know the latest scholarship on the Passion Narratives, this book is a must.
So why was this book such a chore to read? For one thing, it is enormous, over 1300 pages of text plus another 300+ pages of appendices. "War and Peace" is actually shorter than this book. Add to that the writing style of Raymond Brown, who is a scholar writing for scholars who does not feel compelled to use readable prose and who greatly overuses abbreviations and run on sentences. Brown repeats many of the sins of modern Biblical scholars, such as the refusal to take the meaning of the biblical text at face value, the devaluation of interpretations of early Christian sources in favor of imaginary sources such as "Q" and "Pre-Mark", and a tendency to discount the supernatural and the prophetic.
So why did I give such a book 4 stars? Frankly, if you want to understand what modern Biblical scholars have to say about the Passion Narratives of Christ, this book is THE one to read. Brown lines up the passion narratives of all four gospels, along with the passion narrative of the apocryphal "Gospel of Peter" and discusses the differences and similarities of each one. He explores the secular histories of such writers as Josephus and Tacitus and ties those into what the gospel writers had to say. He discusses the Greek text at length (in my opinion, perhaps too much at length) and contrasts how the wording in the Greek may point out differences in the perspectives of the Gospel writers. Despite his position as perhaps the most pre-eminent of modern Catholic scripture scholars, Brown treats the writings of the Church fathers far more extensively than I have seen among other bibilical scholars, and he discusses their views without the usual dismissal and condescention of other biblical scholars. What's more, he is deeply knowledgeable about all the most current biblical scholarship, and he can evaluate the positions of most scholars and discuss their merits.
The book starts out very slow, with an in depth discussion of the origins of the Gospels. By the time Brown actually dives into the text, however, the discussion is far more focused and interesting. Brown breaks up the Gospel discussions about the Passion from the Garden of Gethsemane to the laying of Christ in the tomb and divides them into scenes, and he lays out each scene as described in each of the gospels and dives into them, going into all the linguistic, historical, theological and other aspects of each scene. By the time you finish each section, you will feel like you are an expert on that passage of scripture.
I would not recommend that you read this book for spiritual reading or for any sustained reading for that matter. This book is definitely a reference book that should be picked up and read in small chunks as required for your study of certain passages of scripture. But if you want to know the latest scholarship on the Passion Narratives, this book is a must.
July 12, 2025
A staggering achievement! No stone is left uncovered in this monumental study of the Passion Narratives. Brown is as balanced and thorough as ever in this deep dive into the, perhaps, most important set of texts history has bequeathed to us.
March 26, 2024
In 1990 about three years before this- his ultimate theological achievement, I brought my pastor to the head table of a Baltimore dinner to (emotionally) reconnect with his former classmate Raymond Brown. (I was a mere second year theology student). Brown was the preeminent Catholic Biblical scholar of the last half of the twentieth century, arguably THE PREMMINENT BIBLICAL SCHOLAR period. These magnificent volumes of research prove why, and I have pulled them off the shelf again, this week, Holy Week on the calendar as appropriate reference and reading.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews