I guess that forteans who give any thought to the subject of the Gospels, divide into those who believe there is no historical evidence for Jesus; and those who believe that He was a real character whose history differs from the Gospel account. I fall into the former cate­gory, but that doesn’t dampen my fascination with scripture and the debates it engenders. Christ­ianity is still the dominant relig­ion, and thus the dominant grand narrative (whatever jaded post-modernists claim); that in itself makes the problem of Gospel authenticity important.

Bart Ehrman’s work constitutes a telling contribution to the Jesus debate; moreover, he has the knack of getting as much useful evidence into his popular books as he demonstrates in his more scholarly treatises.