I really liked The Five Gospels as an attempt to cut through Christian dogma and translate known gospel writings as accurately as possible. Many scholars of "The Jesus Seminar" reviewed the translations and, at meetings, voted on whether they believed the historical Jesus of Nazareth actually said words attributed to him, or whether they were added midrashically, or by later church traditions.

The translations are good and the discussion of the historical opinions is good. I personally don't believe that history determines faith or vice-versa, but that they inform each other. If some miracle proves not to be scientifically true, the important part to me is what the Biblical writer was trying to say about God by saying that the miracle happened. (I'm firmly in the minority here - it seems that many evangelical Christians are horribly threatened by any hint that the Bible might not be a literal historical document, and they have no trouble saying so, even on Amazon.com.

But I never bought the follow-on book, The Acts of Jesus, from most of the same people, because I didn't want to spend $25 on the hardcover (I paid about $16 for the paperback version of The Five Gospels, and at that time, it really made a difference). I've just been stuck in the mentality of waiting for the paperback version, and for some reason, I wondered today why it had never come out.

Well, it had - but it was no better than the hardcover. Take a look at these two Amazon prices:

On the left, with the orange stripe, is the original hardcover version of The Acts of Jesus. It retails for $35, and Amazon sells it for about $24, shipping in 2-3 weeks. On the right, with the blue stripe, is the paperback version of the same book, which retails for $25 and, unlike the hardcover, is apparently out-of-print. Amazon can find one for you, maybe, but it'll cost you more than the hardcover version!

(I'm using these graphic Amazon links because Amazon serves them, and therefore updates the prices every time you see them, but they're a bit flawed. As I write this, the paperback link says "Buy New: $25.00", but Amazon doesn't have any in stock and can't sell it to you at that price. They can get you a used copy for $108.82, though!)

I suppose it's just one of those book industry things. After all, Best Book Buys can't even find the paperback edition. But if I recall correctly, the paperback versions of The Five Gospels and The Complete Gospels: Annotated Scholar's Version sold fairly well, so it puzzles me.

As so many things do.