This incisive critique thoroughly and convincingly debunks the claims that recently discovered texts such as the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary, and even the Dead Sea Scrolls undermine the historical validity of the New Testament. Jenkins places the recent controversies surrounding the hidden gospels in a broad historical context and argues that, far from being revolutionary, such attempts to find an alternative Christianity date back at least to the Enlightenment. By employing the appropriate scholarly and historical methodologies, he demonstrates that the texts purported to represent pristine Christianity were in fact composed long after the canonical gospels found in the Bible. Produced by obscure heretical movements, these texts have attracted much media attention chiefly because they seem to support radical, feminist, and post-modern positions in the modern church. Indeed, Jenkins shows how best-selling books on the "hidden gospels" have been taken up by an uncritical, drama-hungry media as the basis for a social movement that could have powerful effects on the faith and practice of contemporary Christianity.

For more than a century, Bible scholars and university researchers have been systematically debunking what ordinary Christians believed about Jesus of Nazareth. But what if the most recent Biblical scholarship actually affirmed the New Testament? What if Jesus was not a Zealot revolutionary, or a Greek Cynic philosopher, or a proto-feminist Gnostic, but precisely what he claimed to be: the divine Son of Man prophesied in the Book of Daniel who gave his life as a ransom for many? What if everything the Gospels say about Jesus of Nazareth—his words, his deeds, his plans—turned out to be true? Searching for Jesus changes “what if?” to “what is,” debunking the debunkers and showing how the latest scholarship supports orthodox Christian belief.

An uplifting study of Jesus, his times and his teaching

“This book will prove to be a most effective weapon… against the debunking and skeptical attitudes toward the Gospels that are so prevalent, not only in academe, but also on the street, among young people who, sadly, are leaving the Churches in droves.” – Robert Barron, author of Catholicism For well over a hundred years now, many scholars have questioned the historical truth of the Gospels, claiming that they were originally anonymous. Others have even argued that Jesus of Nazareth did not think he was God and never claimed to be divine. In The Case for Jesus, Dr. Brant Pitre, the bestselling author of Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist, goes back to the sources—the biblical and historical evidence for Christ—in order to answer several key questions, including: • Were the four Gospels really anonymous? • Are the Gospels folklore? Or are they biographies? • Were the four Gospels written too late to be reliable? • What about the so-called “Lost Gospels,” such as “Q” and the Gospel of Thomas? • Did Jesus claim to be God? • Is Jesus divine in all four Gospels? Or only in John? • Did Jesus fulfill the Jewish prophecies of the Messiah? • Why was Jesus crucified? • What is the evidence for the Resurrection? As The Case for Jesus will show, recent discoveries in New Testament scholarship, as well as neglected evidence from ancient manuscripts and the early church fathers, together have the potential to pull the rug out from under a century of skepticism toward the traditional Gospels. Above all, Pitre shows how the divine claims of Jesus of Nazareth can only be understood by putting them in their ancient Jewish context.

A journey through the life of Jesus. Find the ten symbols associated with his life hidden on each page.

The Search is neither predominately scholarly, historical, nor inspirational. Rather, it is a book that seeks to understand why Jesus said what he said and did what he did in light of the fact that he was not only a loyal Galilean Jew but he was also a loyal Roman subject, who was probably educated in Greco-Roman influenced schools, who probably worked under the authority of Roman administrators, who ministered under the protection of Roman officials, and who died as a enemy of Rome as mandated by Roman law. The book is not intended to present Jesus in any lesser light than that of deity. Yet, within the context of known Greco-Roman history, customs, philosophies, and manners of the time in which Jesus lived and ministered. It attempts to show under what circumstances his ministry and popularity grew and flourished in Roman Mare Nostrum and then floundered. The Search is historical in that it portrays the life of Jesus as it was in Roman Mare Nostrum East. It is scholarly in that it confirms each Gospel recorded event with non-biblical authenticating documentation. It is inspirational in that it assumes that the Gospel records are the most accurate records available about the life of Jesus and that the word and deeds recorded in the Gospel narratives have been preserved for two millennia because they were the narratives that God felt would be most spiritually beneficial to this Current generation. This book will attempt to discover Jesus' life by filling in the empty center between birth and death by reaching beyond the bare bones skeleton of historical Jesus and alighting upon the fully developed historical epic of Jesus-the loyal Jewish Roman subject of Roman Mare Nostrum East.

Jesus the historical figure has intrigued some of the most interesting figures of modernity; such as Newton and Norman Mailer. In this revealing history and critique, the author enters the complex mental worlds of these researchers to show how our understanding of Jesus has influenced our culture