Did Jesus Exist?

In Did Jesus Exist? historian and Bible expert Bart Ehrman confronts the question, "Did Jesus exist at all?" Ehrman vigorously defends the historical Jesus, identifies the most historically reliable sources for best understanding Jesus' mission and message, and offers a compelling portrait of the person at the heart of the Christian tradition.

Known as a master explainer with deep knowledge of the field, Bart Ehrman methodically demolishes both the scholarly and popular "mythicist" arguments against the existence of Jesus. Marshaling evidence from within the Bible and the wider historical record of the ancient world, Ehrman tackles the key issues that surround the mythologies associated with Jesus and the early Christian movement.

In Did Jesus Exist?: The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth, Ehrman establishes the criterion for any genuine historical investigation and provides a robust defense of the methods required to discover the Jesus of history.

In this forceful scholarly rebuttal to the "Jesus didn't exist" theory, Ehrman demonstrates:

• Historical Methods Explained: Why virtually every expert on the planet—regardless of their faith—agrees that Jesus of Nazareth was a real historical figure.
• Non-Christian Sources: A critical examination of what Roman and Jewish writers like Tacitus and Josephus actually said about a man named Jesus.
• The Gospels as Evidence: How scholars analyze the Gospels not as inerrant scripture, but as historical documents containing valuable data about the life and death of a first-century Jew.
• Early Christian Origins: A definitive takedown of mythicist claims, showing how the belief in a crucified messiah could only have emerged from a real, historical event.
• The Apocalyptic Prophet: A compelling portrait of who the historical Jesus truly was: a Jewish apocalypticist who expected the imminent end of the world.