The Passover Plot

by Hugh J. Schonfield

Book Overview

The Passover Plot shows us the historical evidence that Jesus was a mortal man, a young genius who believed himself to be the Messiah and deliberately and brilliantly planned his entire ministry... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1932857095
• ISBN13: 9781932857092
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: Disinformation Company
• Length: 287 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.3" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Very informative book.

I never pictured myself reading about about Jesus, however curiousity made me read this without putting it down. This book gives a different spin on this story, and I appreciate knowing more about the man without (what I consider) the exagerated additions. It is much easier for me to understand how people (including Jesus) believed who he was, and the series of events that led him through his life. It is a great read, for those who believe and for those who do not.

An interesting read.

I found this book to be very interesting, a subject that has always needed answered. A book for all to read. well written, and not an easy read!! well detailed and very informative..

A really good look at the historical Jesus

Why is it that my fellow contemporary Christians see such a threat in a study of the historical Jesus? Their response to movies such as the Da Vinci code, and books such as Mr. Shonfield's excellent exploration, always amaze and amuse me. Do they really expect to have the supernatural Jesus without the reality of the man? Hugh Shonfield does an incredible job of exploring the times and events that influenced the real person who established one of the most universal and controversal religions in all of history. As long as Jesus, and his message love one another, exists in our hearts, then what else is needed. Thank you Mr. Shonfield for your special work.

Historical What-ifs

In 1971, I was a public high school senior who had dropped out of the Catholic School system after ten years of Catholic indoctrination and an excellent high school education under the Sistine Jesuits. I took an English elective entitled, "The Bible as Literature." Our first reading was "The Passover Plot." I found the book to be highly interesting in its presentation of the historical facts of the time (history has always been my passion), and its subjective interpretation of the life of Jesus. Keep in mind that my background had been the religous indoctrination of the Catholic Church, which had been the preeminet spiritual and temporal leader of Europe until Martin Luther happened along. Also, keep in mind that Protestants are considered to be heretics of the Holy Roman Catholic Church.Anyway, my take on the whole matter is quite simple. I am sure most of us remember the old school game where you wisper a message in someones ear and have that person pass it to ten people. At the end of the line you ask the last person to reveal the message, and your original message has been totally twisted around. The same with history. Here we are two thousand years later after Jesus' presumable death at the "brutal" hands of the Romans whose empire is also dead, and, more importantly, still waiting for his "SECOND COMING" as Christian believers, and no one can really say with sound accuracy if he lived or if he was just a myth. The bottom line really is quite simple. Regardless of his existence, a religion was started, and our modern world is now caught up in the grips of a terrorist inspired JIHAD. The crusades revisited. Jews against Moslems, and Moslems against Christians---an age old story. Yet, all three religions claim to be descended from Abraham, but are killing each other against the precept of "Thou shallt not kill thy neighbor." The more lethal the weapon, the better. Oh, and now we have a movie, "The Passion," which is exploiting the violent side of our souls in order to get a message out or is it the old Hollywood story--to make a bigger buck and be the all-time money grosser. When will we as so-called educated, enlightened humans ever learn that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Sorry, if this was not an exact review of the book, and more like a polemical takeoff of my feelings on the book...but,...In conclusion, the book does make an interesting read for someone who is open-minded enough to accept or reject the authors precepts. It should be read along with other books on the subject. Like the Constitution and the Bible, it is a matter of one's own interpretation. For historical research, I give it four stars, and for his "subjective" analysis and conclusion, I give the book three stars.

Scholarship and speculation

It was Schoenfeld's specualtion that Jesus faked his crucifixion that made this a hot best-seller in its day, but the virtues of the book lie in the meticulous and persuasive scholarship that underlie the sensational element. Schoenfeld is particulary good at explaining what it means to understand Jesus as a Jew, a fact given lip service but rarely understood by Christians. Also outstanding is his analysis of the differing theological conceptions and aims of the four gospel authors, and how their religious views shaped their versions of the story. His idea that Jesus deliberately set out to fulfill the Old Testament prophecies and become the Messiah is interesting and plausible. One needn't accept his highly speculative passover plot theory of just what happened on that first Easter to get quite a lot out of this excellent work.