Jesus and his biographers

Jesus began in obscurity, preached for about three years, and was crucified by the Romans.

Yet the Jesus story could not be suppressed. It lived on, modulated by the experiences of some of his followers after his death.

Throughout the subsequent two millennia, Jesus has never lacked for biographers, and biographers have never lacked something to say.

Each of these 'biographers' of Jesus had his or her own special way of characterising the Jesus story.

From the earliest times, a high degree of reinterpretation of that story is evident.

Some have concluded that we can't know much at all, others that Jesus was apocalyptic messianic figure, and others that Jesus was a sort of cynic-sage.

Some sort to demythologise Christianity, others seem to be expecting its funeral.

Indeed. Many have questioned whether the modern search for the 'historical ' Jesus does not tell us more about the biographers than about Jesus.

Yet current studies far outstrip in number those of any earlier period in history. Spurred on by archaeological and textual finds and by new research techniques in anthropological and social sciences, scholars are now producing volumes of information and interpretation at an unprecedented rate.

In this work, Professor Weaver summarises the work of Jesus' biographers from the earliest oral traditions down to present day scholars of the 'postmodern' world and then deals with the central questions surrounding this quest: Does it matter to Christians?

Should it matter? Can faith and history coexist?