Postcards from Egypt: Reimagining Jesus in the Gospel of Mark

by Osvaldo D. Vena; Charles H. Cosgrove

Publisher:

Resource Publications

, 2020

Overview

What if? What if Jesus had not died on the cross? How would he have lived his remaining years, and what would he say about his life, his ministry, and his alleged death? In this fictional account, told from the perspective of Jesus, readers encounter an alternative version of his life both before and after the crucifixion. It asks us to imagine that Jesus, having been rescued from certain death, ends up in Alexandria, where he marries and has a family. When he discovers a scroll describing his ministry--the Gospel of Mark--he notices many points where he disagrees with the way his story has been told, and he decides to find the author in order to give his own version of events. This novel helps us reimagine not only the familiar Gospel accounts but also the possibilities for the historical Jesus’ life and ministry.

Praise for Postcards from Egypt

“In Postcards from Egypt, a novel, Vena asks daring questions. What would have happened if Jesus did not die on the cross? If he was married? If he had an effeminate disciple? If he felt that his voice has been stolen and used—through misrepresentation and sheer invention—to build a movement based on his alleged resurrection? These questions allow Vena to reimagine Jesus in a radical way. The Jesus who emerges in Vena’s novel is free of dogmatism, and prejudices.”

—Manuel Villalobos, Chicago Theological Seminary



“What if the message and the life of Jesus were meaningful even without his death on the cross and his resurrection? Just as Christians once imagined the life of the young Jesus in the legends recorded in Pseudo-Matthew, Vena imagines the life of the mature Jesus in a novella we might call Pseudo-Mark, challenging us to ask: What is truly at the core of the Christian faith?”

—Nancy E. Bedford, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary



“In this fascinating novella, we meet Jesus as an older man who has grown in wisdom, humility, and grace. . . . As he looks back on his spirited and passionate youth and relates the events that unfolded, we hear the Gospel stories anew as we consider how he himself may have understood his life, his followers, his world, and his God. Through this compelling story, Vena has done what no biblical scholar has done: he has reclaimed the voice of Jesus to help us reconnect with his humanity—a humanity that has been largely obscured by the continuous remaking of his divinity.”

—Melanie Baffes, author of Love, Loss, and Abjection: The Journey to New Birth in the Gospel of John

Product Details

• Title: Postcards from Egypt: Reimagining Jesus in the Gospel of Mark
• Authors: Osvaldo D. Vena, Charles H. Cosgrove
• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Print Publication Date: 2020
• Logos Release Date: 2020
• Pages: 124
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Ebook
• ISBNs: 9781725264380, 9781725264366, 1725264366, 9781725264373, 1725264374, 1725264382
• Resource ID: LLS:9781725264380
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2025-04-22T17:31:28Z

About the Authors

Osvaldo D. Vena is Emeritus Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. He is the author of Jesus, Disciple of the Kingdom (2014), Roya: Novela y Cuentos (2018), and Antifaz Negro: El impacto de lo religioso en la vida de un niño (2020).