About the Author

Over his illustrious career, Raymond E. Brown, S.S., Ph.D., was internationally regarded as a dean of New Testament scholars. He was Auburn Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, received over thirty honorary degrees from Catholic and Protestant universities worldwide, and was elected a (Corresponding) Fellow of the British Academy and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In addition to serving as president of the Society of Biblical Literature, the Catholic Biblical Association, and the Society of New Testament Studies, two popes appointed Father Brown as the sole American on the Pontifical Biblical Commission. Some of the best known of his more than thirty-five books on the Bible are three volumes in the Anchor Bible series on the Gospel and Epistles of John, as well as the Anchor Bible Reference Library volumes The Birth of the Messiah, The Death of the Messiah, and An Introduction to the New Testament, winner of the 1998 Catholic Press Association Award for Biblical Studies. Father Brown’s untimely death on August 8, 1998, saddened all who knew him.

Reviews

"Father Raymond Brown has a strong claim to be the most distinguished of American New Testament scholars, and he has few competitors worldwide."—The New York Times

"A stunning array of fresh insights into how the passion stories came into being and what—scene by scene—the four Evangelists really say about the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus."—Newsweek

"Breathtaking! Raymond E. Brown's The Death of the Messiah crowns two millennia of Christian scholarship pondering the 'scandal of the crucifixion.' Brown has once again demonstrated his position as Father, Rabbi and teacher to us all."—Burton L. Visotzky, Jewish Theological Seminary of America

"The supreme achievement of a deeply pastoral scholar."—Sandra M. Schneiders, Jesuit School of Theology and Graduate Theological Union

"The benchmark by which any future study of the Passion Narratives will be measured."—John P. Meier, University of Notre Dame

"These volumes are a treasure that spans the ages."—Phyllis Trible, Wake Forest University Divinity School