Recording of Session 1 - Please note that this podcast has been edited to remove some inaudible audience questions.

Around the year 30 AD, in an insignificant province of the Roman Empire, a Jewish prophet, teacher and healer met with a shameful and brutal end on a Roman cross. 2,000 years later, this obscure figure has over two billion followers and is acknowledged as the most influential person ever to have walked the earth.

As people of faith, we know Jesus through the Gospels. But scholarly enquiry into the historical figure of Jesus has brought new insight and illumination. In this study afternoon we will look at Jesus in his historical context: his Jewish heritage, his message, friends and enemies, his execution, and ask what difference this understanding makes to us as Christians in the 21st century.

Professor Helen Bond is Professor of Christian Origins at the University of Edinburgh. She has contributed to a number of BBC TV documentaries, and her books include Jesus: A Very Brief History (SPCK 2017) and The Historical Jesus: A Guide for the Perplexed (T&T Clark 2012).

Recorded 10 February 2018.