Jesus of Nazareth 2000 Years After : The Man and his Mission

Jesus of Nazareth belonged to a time and place: Palestine under Roman occupation. What impact did these circumstances have on his teaching? This book places Jesus firmly in his historical context and separates out the likely and credible from the unlikely and incredible in accordance with the times in which he lived.

Jesus of Nazareth left behind a legacy that soon developed into the world religion that became known as Christianity. Had that been his intention? What kind of man was he? This book sets out to record what can be known or inferred about the historical Jesus. Its main object is to explain in a clear and forthright manner what can realistically be said about this important figure. It covers the major aspects of Jesus’s existence: his society, his deeds, his teaching, his relations with his contemporaries, his death, and his mysterious resurrection, as well as explaining at every stage the difficulties posed by the sources. The emphasis throughout is on what is credible, what is not credible, and what is simply undecidable. A substantial conclusion rounds up what can reasonably be upheld as historical in Jesus’s case. Although the approach is a scholarly one, the aim has been to present an account that is readable and accessible, yet reasonably complete and historically reliable.