Gide. I'm Gary Stevens. And welcome to the second series of the History in the Bible podcast. More of the history in more of the books in all the Bibles.

Episode 2.25. The Quest for the Historical Jesus.

In the last episode, I related how modern scholars have assembled what they believe to be a reliable Greek text of the New Testament.

On to the final half of my final season, the history in the New Testament. Over the course of the past 150 years, New Testament scholarship has not been a relentless march to a greater certainty. New Testament scholarship has not been a relentless march to a greater certainty. New Testament scholarship

has weathered four great intellectual tsunamis, each obliterating the older. Is the current

wave the last? Who knows? As I said in my very first episode, 1.1, all the history, in all the books, in all the Bibles,

I do not pretend for a minute to be objective. I will follow the approaches of two schools

of modern thought. The first is called the third quest for the historical Jesus.

The second is the new perspective's approach on Paul. Both debuted in the 1970s and are still going strong today.

I'll work through the birth, infancy, mission, death and resurrection of Jesus, as depicted in each of the Gospels.

I'll also investigate what the book of Acts and the letters of Paul have to tell us of the earliest Christians.

And there I will end my podcast.

Of course, at the heart of my story is the figure of Jesus.

What did Jesus believe about himself?

Who did others think he was?

How does Jesus fit into his Jewish milieu?

What do the Gospels tell us about his birth, life and death?

Jesus' life story is supported by an ensemble of A-list players.

His parents, Joseph and Mary, John the Baptist, James the Just, Peter the Rock,

and the mysterious other disciples, Mary Magdalene and Paul the Abbasite.

In supporting roles are the Roman governors, the last remaining Herodian kings,

the Greeks, the people of Galilee and Judea,

...