Sanders is clearly one of the best New Testament scholars in the country today. His take on Jesus is well grounded in both text and culture, and cuts new ground, not for the sake of cutting new ground, but because Sanders has interesting insights. He starts his story of Jesus with the clearing of the temple and moves on to show Jesus as a Jewish reformer, who was thorough grounded in the Judaism of his day. Good insights into the character of 1st Century Judaism, as well as Christian origins. This is more academic than The historical figure of Jesus, but still very readable. ( )