Jesus is one of the few people whose biographies have the ability to sparkintense passion and heated controversy. Now, in this highly accessibleexploration into Jesus' life, Bart Ehrman reviews the latest textual andarcheological research as well as the history of first-century Palestine,drawing a fascinating portrait of the man and his teachings.Ehrman shows us what historians have long known about the Gospels and theman who stands behind them. Through a careful evaluation of the New Testament(and other surviving sources, including the more recently discovered Gospels ofThomas and Peter), Ehrman proposes that Jesus can be best understood as anapocalyptic prophet--a man convinced that the world would end dramaticallywithin his lifetime and that a new kingdom would be created on earth. Accordingto Ehrman, Jesus' belief in a coming apocalypse and his expectation of an utterreversal in the world's social organization not only underscores the radicalismof his teachings but also sheds light on both the appeal of his message tosociety's outcasts and the threat he posed to Jerusalem's establishedleadership.In this sharply written and persuasive book, Ehrman suggests that theapocalyptic fervor that perpetually grips large segments of society is nothingnew. Indeed, history's many doomsayers, including those today who are franticabout the new millennium, are close in spirit and thinking to Jesus, who waitedin vain for the imminent arrival of a new, peaceful kingdom.