Books like Jesus and the Gospels

This book is good in parts, but suffers from trying to do too much (a typical error in a first year text), particularly where the author reaches into areas where he is not an expert.The historical context presented at the beginning of the book is oversimplified and suffers from repeated errors (calling Julius Caesar the first emperor of Rome as an example). For readers wanting a history of the ancient near East or Roman Empire, there are a number of better resources, even amongst Christian literature, that ought to be preferred.When the authors moves to principles of exegesis (a topic where he has written whole books) the content is much better and much more engaging. This is where I found the greatest level of value in the book. The apologetics questions of historicity are simultaneously too much and too little. The author insists on addressing historicity repeatedly and for every portion of the gospels, meaning it takes up a lot of the content of the book. However after the initial discussion of the topic, no new material is added in repeated discussions, raising the question of why it needs to be discussed again. For those looking to persuade or be persuaded this book adds little to a well established debate.The core of the book is it’s survey of the gospels which is good but not excellent. The author presents good summaries of the individual gospels which are insightful, but the analysis on pericopes through the book are relatively shallow. This is partly due to the length of the book, but in places is notable.The largest flaw in the book is the lack of overarching structure. The preliminary materials are written in encyclopaedic fashion, which is fine as they would make an adequate reference text for pastors in most places (history and historicity excluded). However, the survey portions become difficult to read because there is no attempt to structure the chapters beyond putting items in narrative order. As a book for learning, this makes it difficult for the student to absorb the conclusions of the book particularly in self study. Effectively it descends into a brief commentary, but for a survey text, such a structure is not conducive to learning.