My M.A. in History ad Philosophy of Religions, focused on Greco-Roman cults and myths, included also the study of early Christianity within this Greco-Roman context. My passion for the investigation of the historical figure of Jesus goes even further back when I was an undergraduate student of archaeology. And my current ongoing PhD research focuses partially on his image as a miraculous healer of all kinds of (real, imaginary and supernatural) diseases in the Roman empire. And as a native speaker of modern Greek and long-time researcher of sources in ancient and medieval Greek, I can guide students to the right English translation of the Christian Bible which has been done by major University professors, with the proper linguistic background, and able to acknowledge the historical context of the meaning of words.

The title of this class is inspired by a very influential historical book on Jesus by E.P. Sanders (Arts and Sciences Professor of Religion at Duke University, North Carolina and Fellow of the British Academy) dated to the 1980s which is still a classic reading for all curious minds. 

Despite the profound scholarly knowledge of its author, a lot has changed in scholarship these four decades, so a good and comprehensive introduction can be found in the book The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, written by Professor  of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Bart D. Ehrman (Oxford University Press, 2019).