Geza Vermes was widely regarded as the greatest Jesus scholar. In "The Real Jesus", Vermes, best known for his work on the Dead Sea Scrolls, comments on a variety of contemporary religious themes such as "The Da Vinci Code", Mel Gibson's infamous film "The Passion of the Christ", Benedict XVI's book "Jesus of Nazareth" and the "Gospel of Judas".

Informed by the work of a world-class scholar, the short articles in this book open to the general reader the findings of some of the major discoveries of the twentieth century such as the Dead Sea Scrolls.

This collection of shorter popular pieces, many of which appeared in "The Times" and other newspapers, makes Vermes' research on Christian origins, the Dead Sea Scrolls and most importantly Jesus the Jew accessible to a wider readership.