The great benefit of Aus's work . . . is that it opens up perspectives too frequently neglected and so provides a rich resource for future investigation both of these passages and of the passion narrative as a whole. * Catholic Biblical Quarterly *
How did it all begin-the Jesus thing? It began, one could argue, with telling stories: what he did, what happened, the enigmas, the surprises, the wonder. And the first tellers of those stories lived and breathed a culture of stories: ancient stories enshrined in the sacred books, yet malleable, subject to constant retelling. Roger Aus has taken us repeatedly into that world, enabled us to think in an haggadic way about the oldest Jesus traditions. In this latest volume, rich in detail and provocative surmise, Aus invites us to imagine how some long-forgotten disciple, perhaps a low-ranking priest, might have used traditions of priestly lore and practice to flesh out the story of Jesus, the Anointed High Priest of the end time, thus producing some of those details in the Gospel narratives that have puzzled commentators for twenty centuries. -- Wayne Meeks, Yale University
With unrivaled precision, Dr. Aus has gathered together from the literature of ancient, primarily rabbinic, Judaism a real treasure of information on Jewish trial procedures, the great significance of the rituals of the Day of Atonement, and much more. In light of this background, the events reported in the Gospel Passion narratives are filled with life in a surprisingly new way. The connections and analogies which Dr. Aus points out are very striking indeed. -- Friedrich Avemarie, University of Marburg
