Contents of Reinventing Jesus

       Acknowledgments

       Introduction: Reinventing Jesus?

Part 1: I Believe in Yesterday

  1.  The Gospel Behind the Gospels

  2.  Oral Tradition and a Memorizing Culture

  3.  An Eccentric Jesus and the Criteria of Authenticity

Part 2: Politically Corrupt? The Tainting of Ancient New Testament Texts

  4.  Can We Trust the New Testament?

       The Quantity and Quality of Textual Variants

  5.  Myths about Manuscripts

  6.  An Embarrassment of Riches:

       Recovering the Wording of the Original New Testament Text, Part 1

  7.  The Methods of Textual Criticism:

       Recovering the Wording of the Original New Testament Text, Part 2

  8.  Is What We Have Now What They Wrote Then?

Part 3: Did the Early Church Muzzle the Canon?

  9.  The Range of the Canon

 10.  What Did the Ancient Church Think of Forgeries?

 11.  What Did the Ancient Forgers Think of Christ?

Part 4: The Divinity of Jesus: Early Tradition or Late Superstition?

 12.  Divine Portraits: Jesus in the Gospels

 13.  Supreme Devotion: Jesus in the Larger New Testament

 14.  From the Pens of Fathers and Foes:

       Jesus Outside the New Testament

 15.  Simply Divine? The Real Issue at Nicea

Part 5: Stealing Thunder: Did Christianity Rip Off Mythical Gods?

 16.  Parallelomania:

       Supposed Links Between Christianity and Pagan Religions

 17.  The Virgin Birth of Alexander the Great?

 18.  Osiris, Frankenstein, and Jesus Christ

       Conclusion

       Endnotes

       Further Reading

       Scripture Index

       Subject Index