Includes bibliographical references (pages 303-310) and indexes

Introduction : the history of the historical Jesus -- Gospel truth and historical innocence. The synoptic gospels ; The synoptics and John ; Anachronism and willed innocence -- God and Israel in Roman antiquity. Purity ; Practice and tradition ; Jewish diversity and consensus in the time of Jesus ; Living the law : sacred space and sacred time -- Trajectories : Paul, the gospels, and Jesus. "For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord" : the kingdom ; "He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve" : the twelve ; "To the married I give charge, not I but the Lord" : ethics and the end ; "The one spirit gives the gifts of healing" : works and power ; "This is my body, which is for you" : the Lord's supper ; God's "Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh" : Jesus the Christ -- Contexts : the Galilee, Judea, and Jesus. Economics, politics and power ; The mission of John ; The followers of Jesus -- The days in Jerusalem. The call to Israel ; The crucified Messiah -- Afterword : Jesus, Christianity, and history

Paula Fredriksen draws on the narratives of all four evangelists as well as both John and the Synoptics, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Jewish authorities of Jesus' time - Philo, Paul, and Josephus - who wrote in Greek, and early rabbinic writings. She shows us a historical Jesus living in the tumultuous world of late-Second Temple Judaism; an observant Jew of his time, a prophetic teacher who traveled through the villages of Galilee and frequently in and around Jerusalem.. 'At the center of her book she brings us to the questions raised by the least disputed fact about Jesus' life; his death.. 'Why was crucifixion chosen as the means of execution? If Jesus was executed as a political insurrectionist, why were none of his followers executed or even arrested?. 'The author's quest in search of the answers takes us through the religious world - Jewish and pagan - of Mediterranean antiquity, through the tangle of Judean and Galilean politics, and through the surprisingly intimate social interactions of Jewish and gentile communities in the ancient city. And it is through the Gospel of John - a text out of favor in most academic reconstructions - that she finds the answer to the interpretive dilemma posed by Jesus' execution and his disciples' survival

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