The Historical Jesus of the Gospels: Jesus in Historical Context Book

A detailed look at the issues surrounding the historical Jesus. Keener is characteristically strong with his early sources in this text. If you want to study Jesus in light of ancient writers and Jewish ideas this is a great place to start. Don't let the page numbers intimidate you. The book is really only 400 pages long (including 9 appendixes) with literally 400 pages of footnotes and indexes.

Keener is examining the historical Jesus with a mostly minimalist perspective. He wants to examine what we can infer about the Gospel text from the best sources. Keener is a conservative scholar and it will be illustrated in his conclusions, but he is by no means uncritical of the text. He sees where the narrative has possibly been altered and will consider what that means in light of ancient biographical writers and the conventions they held. Overall, this is a great read for someone familiar with historically Jesus research and could be a great starting point for those who want a little more of a challenge as they enter into historical Jesus research.