Quite a disappointment; not because the book is bad (it isn't), but because The True Herod by the same author was so much better. I found the chapter on Paul almost insufferable and was quite surprised to look back and see that it was only 20 pages! On the other hand, the later chapters on the Synoptic Gospels and their historical background were quite good. I had decided early on that I would skip Vermes most famous book, Jesus the Jew: A Historian's Reading of the Gospels, but by the end I had reconsidered.