Christianity was born nearly 2000 years ago in ancient Palestine. It has shaped the course of human history. Yet historians still cannot say how it really began. How did a 1st-century preacher called Jesus manage to spark a new religion?

It is one of the biggest and most profound of all historical mysteries. This extraordinary book, based on seven years of secret research by a brilliant historian, finally provides the answer.

About the Author

Thomas de Wesselow is an art historian used to tackling “unsolvable” problems. He studied art history at Edinburgh University and at the Courtauld in London, where he worked successfully on the Guidoriccio Problem, one of the great mysteries of Italian art. Later, he became a Scholar at the British School in Rome, researching an even more complex puzzle, the so-called Assisi Problem. In 2002, he was appointed a Post- Doctoral Research Associate at King's College, Cambridge University, where he was later awarded a Leverhulme Early Career. He left in 2006 to write full-time.