If there’s one theme that unites this year’s crop of Passover and Easter releases it’s the spirit of goodwill. From Our Haggadah: Uniting Traditions for Interfaith Families by Cokie Roberts and Steven V. Roberts (Harper, Mar.; Q&A in this issue) to Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection by Pope Benedict XVI (Ignatius Press, Mar.), these books transcend the centuries-old acrimony over the death of Jesus that has often made this a fraught season.
Political pundits Cokie and Steven Roberts lead the pack, writing about their nearly 45-year Passover seder tradition that honors the Jewish retelling of the exodus while lifting up other readings of freedom and rebirth. The Roberts’ interfaith marriage (she is Roman Catholic, he is Jewish) is an example of a respectful union in which both faiths are cherished.
Two other releases celebrate the ritual guidebook at the heart of the Passover seder, which this year begins after sundown on April 18. They include The Szyk Haggadah: Freedom Illuminated by Arthur Szyk, Irvin Ungar, and Byron L. Sherwin (Abrams, Mar.), and A Passover Haggadah: Go Forth and Learn by Rabbi David Silber with Rachel Furst (Jewish Publication Society, Mar.).
Arthur Szyk (1894-1951), the Polish-born graphic artist and book illustrator, drew on the traditions of medieval and renaissance painting for his illuminated manuscripts. The brilliant reproductions in this volume are coffee-table worthy and should probably be protected from the wine-stained seder meal.
Rabbi David Silber’s Go Forth and Learn Haggadah is a more practical seder-night version. An Orthodox Jewish scholar, Silber in this volume offers the Haggadah alongside a collection of essays that provide insight into the biblical and rabbinic texts.
Easter falls late this year, April 24, and for those interested in calendar calculations there’s The Mystery of the Last Supper: Reconstructing the Final Days of Jesus by Colin J. Humphreys (Cambridge, April). Humphreys, a materials scientist at Cambridge University, seeks to reconcile conflicting Gospel accounts of the date of the Last Supper. Was it the night of the Passover seder, as Matthew, Mark, and Luke’s gospels suggest, or did it precede the Jewish feast, as the Gospel of John states? And can all four gospels be right?
Humphreys told RBL he began the quest after his daughter came to him with a question: “Daddy, why don’t we know the dates when Jesus was born and died?”
As with his 2003 book, The Miracles of Exodus, Humphreys again delves into issues of biblical reconstruction with a scientist’s penchant for puzzle solving. Humphreys said he had biblical scholars, both Jewish and Christian, read each chapter.
The book, which also attempts to identify the precise year that Jesus died, is embargoed until April 21.
But the singular publishing event of the season may be Pope Benedict XVI’s second of three planned volumes on Jesus (reviewed in this issue). Heralded by Jewish scholars for exonerating the Jews of the death of Jesus, the book is already in its second printing and comes with a study guide.
Anthony Ryan, director of marketing and sales for Ignatius Press, said the interest in both Protestant and Jewish communities is “unprecedented.”
“There’s nothing but positive things said about it,” Ryan said. “It’s been very unifying.”
Yonat Shimron is a North Carolina-based reporter who writes about religion.