Reissued with a new cover, this is Tom Wright"s response to the wave of controversial books and theories on the historical Jesus. Responding to theories that Jesus was married, fathered children, divorced and then remarried and other claims that the doctrine of the Virgin Birth has caused the oppression of women, Tom Wright outlines these arguments and presents solid reasons for discounting the theories. Whilst he agrees that the real historical Jesus may have some surprises for the institutional Church, he reveals that these "quests" for the real Jesus display many variations on the same themes and shows that these theories are not as novel as they are made out to be. Written from the standpoint of professional Biblical scholarship yet assuming no prior knowledge of the subject, Wright shows convincingly that much can be gained from rigorous historical assessment of what the Gospels" themselves say about Jesus.