Investigating Jesus: An Historian's Quest

John Dickson is in top form in providing this apologetic for the historical Jesus through answering some of the most pressing questions like:

• Who wrote the New Testament?

• How soon after Christ was it written?

• How do we know the story hasn't changed over the years?

• Who decided which bits got into the New Testament and which bits didn't?

• Did anyone else in Jesus' day write about him? Why didn't he write the message down himself?

Today there is renewed interest in and scepticism towards the historical basis of Christianity. "The Jesus Files" is soundly based on historical and New Testament scholarship, and presented in a readable way for the enquirer who wants answers to questions about the hot issue of the historical basis of the Christian faith.
The author takes us through what we can realistically know about the life of Jesus from ancient pagan and Jewish writings as well as NT and near contemporary Christian sources. The author argues that the gospels deserve to be read seriously.
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Publisher Description

How much can we really know about Jesus of Nazareth? How reliable are the Gospels and other sources and how widely have historians and theologians agreed on them? And how much does the historical record really matter? In this popular illustrated book, Australian scholar and TV documentary presenter, John Dickson, sets out to answer these questions. By reviewing ancient evidence, interviewing leading experts and setting out a robust historical method, he establishes clearly the reliability or unreliability of different sources, interpretations and arguments. Christianity prides itself on being an historical religion. John Dickson subjects this to very close scrutiny and shows both how vital this is and yet how different Jesus was from the way he is so often portrayed today.