In this book Margaret Barker explores and explains inconsistencies in the New Testament to present a new way of understanding Christian origins. She confronts and overturns much of the scepticism of recent scholarship. She shows how the original resurrection may in fact be Jesus' mystical experience at his baptism when he was raised up and transformed into the divine son, how the resurrection proof texts in the New Testament may be 'ascent texts' of the royal high priesthood, and how Jesus may have seen himself as the anointed high priest, the Messiah, come to offer himself as the atonement sacrifice of the last days.