(Continued) In general, however, theological works are ideologically suspect;

in other words, they cannot be objective in the sense of historical studies, because they present – and want to present – Jesus’ life as the church sees and preaches it (hermeneutic circle!).

So I had to start my investigations from scratch. That relates to the sources in particular, but also to the history of events, impact, literary history and the immediate environment that relates to the history of events.

I have already published a range of findings in earlier works. Of course I have benefited from the current state of theological Jesus and Bible research and have used it gratefully, but critically. In addition, I have also drawn in particular on recent work on classical philology and the history of the early imperial era.