Why have there been so many lives of Jesus and works of scholarship dedicated to him? Quite simply because, aside from any religious or theological considerations, the figure of Jesus is very source of the word ‘mystery’: both god and man, immortal and mortal, perfect and imperfect, with his feet on the earth and his head in heaven – just as we dream of ourselves as being. 

Breathing fresh life into the genre, Marie-Françoise Baslez examines the gospels in detail to tease out the historical elements contained in them.