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"Jesus of Nazareth" was published in 1999. This book asserts various things and comes to many new conclusions regarding Jesus, his followers, the time he lived in and the reason he was crucified. In the review from "Publisher's Weekly", they state "There is much new here, something that seems unusual for territory so heavily mined." Perhaps this should render caution in the reader; simply because an idea is new does not make it correct.

One new assertion is that no one, not even Jesus himself, thought he was the Son of God. Rather, this was a term bestowed upon him after his crucifixion. The author claims his label as "King of the Jews" on the cross shocked his followers, as if they were all taken by surprised at the mere thought of Jesus being more than human. This would seem to directly contradict the Bible. Specifically, John 10:30 where Jesus says "I and the Father are one." The Jews threatened to stone him for blasphemy because "being a man, you make yourself God". A high priest asked him, "Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" Jesus answered "I Am" Paul the Apostle says in Colossians 1: 15-17 that Jesus is "the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by Him were all things created". This sounds as if both Jesus and at least one of his Apostles thought he was more than just a man and stated as much on several occasions. In fact, Jesus was being awaited by his people. Prophecies of his birth are recorded in Isaiah as early as 712 BC. Isaiah 9: 6 states "For unto us a Child is bornhis name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father". If the Bible is still considered a reliable resource, then the author's conclusion that neither Jesus nor the Apostles nor the people had any idea he was the Son of God would have to seem incorrectly drawn.

Other interesting hypotheses are that Jesus was crucified because he began to say the apocalypse was going to happen immediately, not simply sometime in the future. The author's idea is that this increased the people's belief that he was the Messiah and therefore he was crucified to prevent the people from rioting and for being a "political insurrectionist". However, after Jesus was betrayed and taken from the Garden he was taken to Pilate. If one reads Luke 23: 4 and Luke 23: 14, Pilate says both times "I find no guilt in this man". It was the chief priests and the crowd which pressed Pilate, laying accusations against Jesus. Even Herod could not find guilt

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