This book attempts in a scholarly and nondogmatic way to say, "This is what the historical Jesus was like, this is what he taught, and this is what his mission was about." It seeks, in short, to sketch a portrait of what Jesus was like as a figure of history before his death. A twofold purpose: to present a synthesis of modern Jesus scholarship that is accessible to the general reader, whether Christian or among the interested inquirers; to make a serious scholarly case for a particular image of the historical Jesus that is considerably at variance with the dominant scholarly image.