The latter part of the twentieth century has witnessed the rapidly increasing interest of Jewish scholars in the historical Jesus. This book takes note of the important contributions of contemporary Jewish writers and evaluates from an evangelical perspective how successful they are in dealing with the data of the Gospels.

"Hagner brings together a well-documented variety of twentieth- century Jewish views of Jesus in a fine manner. His scholarly treatment of the theme of anti-Semitism and the Pharisees is sensitively done. A major difficulty I have with his presentation, however, is his premise that the Jewish reclamation of Jesus remains unsuccessful because Jews still do not accept Jesus as the Messiah. Despite this fundamental difference between the Christian and Jewish approaches to Jesus, and despite the rather narrow selection of Jewish scholars treated, Hagner's work is a most useful resource for gleaning insight into this subject."

Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein President, United Judeo-Christian Holy Land Institute

"This is an important work that strikes new ground in its approach and content. It will further a knowledge of Jewish views of Jesus as well as advance Christian understanding of the Gospels. The author is an expert on Jewish literature about Jesus. While many in the Jewish community will find Hagner's conclusions unacceptable, every honest student of the issue, Jewish or non-Jewish, will profit considerably from the author's responsible and careful analysis. I commend this work to both Jewish and Christian readers. 1 predict it will become a classic