The Trial of Jesus Christ and The Last Supper
Bibliography
In addition to the tremendous theological and historical literature existing about the trial of Jesus, a number of interesting novels have been written about the life and death of Jesus. Perhaps the most distinguished are The Last Temptation of Christ, by Nicolas Kazanzakis, and Barabbas, by Par Lagervist. Both were made into films.
Every few years a film is made about the life of Jesus. These began almost at the dawn of movie making, and continue up to the present-day Mel Gibson film. Most of them are spectacular, such as the Cecil B. deMille film, “The Greatest Story Ever Told.”
Deferring judgment of Gibson’s film for the moment, the best one, in my opinion, was the relatively recent film by Franco Zefferelli.
Despite all of the valiant, and often interesting, efforts of theologians, historians, and Biblical scholars, the true sources for the study of the trial of Jesus are the Books of the New Testament, particularly the Gospels, with some earlier references to prophecies in the Old Testament.
If one goes to the Internet, one finds an enormous number of listings under the heading “The Trial of Jesus.” I browsed 140 entries, and, I suspect, I could have gone on for quite some time. Hundreds of published articles in both popular and scholarly journals are available. Likewise, books on the subject exist in the thousands.
Faced with this overwhelming literature, I chose to use the primary source, the New Testament, and a sampling of books. The books selected were from titles that caught my eye in bookstores, and represent a truly random selection, with one exception, that of Michael Grant (1977). After reviewing the contents of each book, I alternately selected from books that were written by “believers” and by “the uncommitted.” The first group of books was written from the perspective of committed Christians who were intent on accepting the accounts in the Gospel as unreservedly true and accurate. The second group of books was written by historians and scholars who approached the trial of Jesus as a verifiable historical event. Without identifying the “camp” that they belong to, here are the most interesting and useful of the books I used in writing this study. I am sure that there are dozens of books that interested readers find missing from this brief list, but, despite these omissions, I am convinced that the four Gospels are the necessary sources. Everything else can be considered “interpretation,” and that, after reading the Gospels for ones self, is pretty much what anyone can do.
Bibles:
The Holy Bible. Authorized King James Version.
The New English Bible. With the Apocrypha.
Books:
Boice, J.M. and P.G. Ryken. 2002. Jesus on Trial. Authentic Publications.
Brandon, S.G. 1979. The Trial of Jesus of
Bunch, C., editor. 2000. Jesus’ Final Week. Intervarsity Press.
Grant, Michael. 1977. Jesus: An Historian’s Review of the Gospels. Scribners.
Grant, Michael. 1992.
Kazanakis, N. 1960. The Last Temptation of Christ. Simon and Schuster.
Lagervist, Par. 1958. Barabbas. Knopf.
Mencken, H.L. 1965. Treatise on the Gods. Knopf.
Schonfield, Hugh J. 1966. The Passover Plot. Bantam Books.
Strobel, Lee. 1998. The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus. Zondervan.
