Includes bibliographical references (p. 604-714) and indexes.

I. Disparate views about Jesus: The development of Jesus scholarship ; Jesus the cynic sage? ; Jesus and Judaism ; Other gospels? -- II. The character of the Gospels: ; The gospels as biographies ; Luke-Acts as history ; Ancient historiography as history ; Ancient historiography as rhetoric ; The gospels' written sources ; The gospels' oral sources -- III. What we learn about Jesus from the best sources: John the Baptist ; Jesus the Galilean Jew ; Jesus the teacher ; Kingdom discipleship ; Jesus' Jewish ethics ; Conflicts with other teachers ; Jesus the prophet ; Jesus as Messiah? ; More than an earthly Messiah ; Confronting and provoking the elite ; Jesus' arrest and execution ; The resurrection -- Appendix 1. Zealots and revolutionaries -- Appendix 2. Mack's case for a Wisdom Q -- Appendix 3. Jewish biographical conventions -- Appendix 4. Jesus' sayings about the end -- Appendix 5. John and the Synoptics on Passover chronology -- Appendix 6. Roman participation in Jesus' arrest? -- Appendix 7. Capital authority -- Appendix 8. What really happened at the tomb? -- Appendix 9. Some postresurrection teachings