Entering into renewed and sometimes confusing attempts to comprehend the work of Jesus of Nazareth and his person, Ben Witherington guides the reader through a vast complex of ancient documents and contemporary questions. He shows that Jesus' contemporaries viewed Jesus as a Jewish prophetic sage whose teaching and style were a reflection of the convergence of Hebrew wisdom and prophetic forms and ideas. Witherington traces the path of wisdom from its earliest manifestations in the Hebrew Bible to its importance in the work of Jesus and then to its apparent influence on the Christology of Paul and other New Testament writers.