Jesus the Bridegroom: The Greatest Love Story Ever Told--Now Available!

Hey everybody, my new book, Jesus the Bridegroom: the Greatest Love Story Ever Told (Image Books) now available for pre-order! (It'll be in stores next week.) So if you liked Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist--or if you're like me and still trying to figure out what to read for Lent--then this book is for you.

In this one, we go back to the Old Testament and ancient Jewish tradition to try and unlock the mystery of Jesus' identity and his passion--not just as Teacher, or Prophet, or Messiah, but as the Bridegroom of Jewish expectation. I'm really thrilled that this is finally coming out; it covers some of my favorite passages in the Bible--the Wedding at Cana, the Woman at the Well, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, the book of Revelation, Paul's controversial "Wives Be Submissive" teaching in Ephesians 5, and even that mysterious Song of Songs! The heart of the book is the chapter on the Passion of Christ. Hope you enjoy.

Here’s the table of contents, a brief description from the publisher, and a couple of kind words from friends.

INTRODUCTION

1. The Divine Love Story
The Wedding at Mount Sinai
Sin as Spiritual Adultery
The New Covenant and the Forgiven Bride
The Song of Songs

2. Jesus the Bridegroom

The Riddle of John the Baptist
The Wedding at Cana
The Last Supper

3. The Woman at the Well

The Samaritan Woman
The Gift of the Living Water
The Piercing of Jesus’ Side

4. The Crucifixion

Jesus’ Wedding Day
What Was the Crucifixion Like?
The Passion of the Messiah

5. The End of Time

The Bridegroom Comes Back
The Wedding Supper of the Lamb
No Marriage in the Resurrection?

6. The Bridal Mysteries
Baptism
The Eucharist
Marriage
Virginity

7. Beside the Well with Jesus

In Jesus the Bridegroom, Brant Pitre once again taps into the wells of Jewish Scripture and tradition, and unlocks the secrets of what is arguably the most well-known symbol of the Christian faith: the cross of Christ. In this thrilling exploration, Pitre shows how the suffering and death of Jesus was far more than an ancient Roman execution. Instead, the Passion of Christ was the fulfillment of ancient Jewish prophecies of a wedding, when the God of the universe would unite himself to humankind in an everlasting nuptial covenant.

To be sure, most Christians are familiar with the apostle Paul's teaching that Christ is the "Bridegroom" and the Church is the "Bride." But what does this really mean? And what would ever possess Paul to compare the death of Christ to the love of a husband for his wife? If you would have been at the Crucifixion, with Jesus hanging there dying, is that how you would have described it? How could a first-century Jew like Paul, who knew how brutal Roman crucifixions were, have ever compared the execution of Jesus to a wedding? And what does Paul mean when he refers to it as the “great mystery” (mysterion mega) (Ephesians 5:32)?

As Pitre shows, the key to unlocking this mystery can be found by going back to Jewish Scripture and tradition and seeing the entire history of salvation, from Genesis to Revelation, from Mount Sinai to Mount Calvary, as a divine love story between Creator and creature, between God and Israel, between Christ and his bride—a story that comes to its climax on the wood of a Roman cross.

In the pages of Jesus the Bridegroom, dozens of familiar passages in the Bible—the Exodus, the Song of Songs, the Wedding at Cana, the Woman at the Well, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, and even the Second Coming at the End of Time—are suddenly transformed before our eyes. Indeed, when seen in the light of Jewish Scripture and tradition, the life of Christ is nothing less than the greatest love story ever told.

"This book will change you. It is an invitation to the Messiah's wedding feast--and a foretaste of heaven. It will change the way you experience the sacraments, personal prayer, Scripture study, and marriage. Most of all, it will deepen your love for Christ." -Scott Hahn, author of The Lamb's Supper and Signs of Life.

“With his customary combination of deep erudition and clarity of expression, Brant Pitre sheds light on a central theme of the New Testament: Jesus as the incarnation of the God who wants to marry his people. In the course of elaborating this motif, Pitre offers wonderfully fresh readings of the Wedding Feast of Cana, the Woman at the Well, the Last Supper, and the Crucifixion. His interpretation of the Passion as the consummation of the spousal relationship between Jesus and his people is simply stunning. This is a book that will appeal to both the scholar and the ordinary believer, indeed to anyone interested in understanding Jesus Christ more profoundly.” -Father Robert Barron, founder of Word on Fire and author of Catholicism