This book is an amazing investigation by a world-renowned scholar that sheds light on the life of Jesus and the origins of the Gospels. This included the results of the latest research into ancient culture, the human brain, and memory mechanisms. The author explains how it happened that the words and actions of Jesus were not forgotten and are reliably known to the whole world even now, and lifts the veil on one of the greatest secrets of the Bible: the secret identity of Jesus’ beloved disciple, the mysterious author of the Fourth Gospel. For the first time in Russian, the main work of one of the most authoritative experts on the New Testament.

For the first time: Living testimonies of all direct participants in the Gospel events and ancient church historians and apologists, analyzed by one of the most authoritative researchers Bibles. The results of the latest research into ancient culture, the human brain, the mechanisms of memory and life of the first Christian generation. A unique reconstruction of the chains through which stories about the words and deeds of Jesus were orally transmitted from person to person. The secret identity of the anonymous beloved disciple of Jesus, the mysterious author of the Fourth Gospel.

Richard Bauckham is a New Testament specialist, professor at the University of St. Andrews (Scotland), member of the British Academy and the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

How the portrait of the historical Jesus was created • Is Jesus different scientists from Christ believers • Is it possible to learn about the real Jesus from the church Gospels • Gospels as eyewitness accounts · Features of historical evidence in the Ancient world • Oral testimony eyewitnesses and written - the Gospels

The first key witness and his lost works • Who exactly transmitted the traditions about Jesus • Living voices of witnesses • The authority of oral messages in the ancient world • The working methods of ancient historians • The traditions of the elders collected by Papias •· Papias of Hierapolis: layman or conscientious historian?

The mystery of the nameless characters in the Gospels • The meaning of details in the Gospel narratives • Why were nameless eyewitnesses of Jesus given names in the later non-canonical Gospels • Why did the evangelists deliberately omit or give the names of some characters • All nameless and characters named by name in the four canonical Gospels

What names did the Palestinian Jews bear at the time of Jesus •The most popular and rare names • The origin of the Gospels names • How people with the same names were distinguished

Specific people behind the Gospels • Why there were exactly twelve apostles • Who were actually part of the Twelve • All about the names of the twelve apostles

Testimonies those who were with Jesus from the very beginning of his ministry • What indicates that the canonical Gospels are a record of evidence • What rules were used to create the Gospel of Kuki • Who was the main source of information for the author of the Gospel of Mark and how is it reported The Gospel itself • Whose testimony is given in the Gospel of John • Hints and innuendos of the Fourth Gospel • The mystery of the anonymous Beloved Disciple • Eyewitness accounts in popular ancient biographies

The Gospel of Mark about its source of information • Oral histories the Apostle Peter and the most ancient Gospel • Psychological portrait of the Apostle Peter • The Gospel of Mark - the story of Jesus from the perspective of Peter, his personal memories

The strange namelessness of some characters in the Gospel of Mark • Anonymous supporters of Jesus • Atmosphere of danger and conspiracy as an indication of the historicity of the Gospel events ·• The riddle of the nameless naked youth from the story of the arrest of Jesus

And again the testimony of Papias of Hierapolis ·· Detailed analysis of Papias' message about the Apostle Peter and the Evangelist Mark · · What Peter remembered and how it happened recorded by Mark •· Distinctive features of the Gospel of Mark • Detailed analysis of Papias' message about the evangelist Matthew • Why Papias valued the Gospel of John above all else • Structure of the Gospel of Mark

The path of oral tradition from eyewitnesses to the evangelists •·Three main models of oral tradition in modern biblical studies •·Perspectives for our understanding of the processes of transmission of the tradition about Jesus in the ancient church

Transmission of tradition in terms of early Christian authors •·From whom did the Apostle Paul receive the tradition •· Reasons for preserving the tradition of Jesus • Rules for transmitting information about the past in oral communities • The Gospels as biographies of Jesus • Features of the transmission of stories about Jesus • Memorization in the Ancient World • Why the tradition of Jesus is variant • How the oral transmission of tradition was controlled

Identifiable authority figures who initiated the tradition •·Chains of teachers/students through whom the tradition was transmitted •·The Jerusalem church was founded by eyewitnesses •·On the anonymity of the Gospels •·What it is about say the titles of the Gospels • Communication in the early Christian movement • One of the reasons for writing the Gospels • Memory of the community and individuals

Features and types of memory • How memories can be constructed • Principles for interpreting past events • Point of view of the participant and point of view of an observer of the event • Are the memories of the Gospel events reliable • · The history of the life of Jesus in the memory of witnesses • · The connection of the forms of the Gospel traditions with eyewitnesses • · The psychology of testimony in court

Testimony of the Beloved Disciple on the authorship of the Gospel of John • Parallel structure of the Prologue and Epilogue of the Gospel of John • Rivalry between the Beloved Disciple and the Apostle Peter • Mysterious witnesses to the truth of the Gospel of John

What the anonymous Beloved testifies to The Disciple • The judgment motif in the Gospel of John • How the Gospel of John emphasizes the authority of the Beloved Disciple as a witness to the life of Jesus • The special closeness of the Beloved Disciple to Jesus • Was the author of the Fourth Gospel one of the twelve apostles • Why did the author of the Gospel of John keep the name of the Beloved Disciple a secret • The historicity of the Gospel of John

The author of the Gospel of John and the apostles • The identity of the Beloved Disciple - the testimony of Papias • Elder John - the mysterious disciple of Jesus • Elder John as the author of the Gospel of John and the three epistles of John • Two Johns and silence of Eusebius of Caesarea·• Testimony about John in the Canon of Muratori •·Irenaeus of Lyons about John and the “traditions of the elders”·• Papias of Hierapolis as the source of Eusebius of Caesarea

Testimony of John Polycrates of Ephesus • John - a participant in the Last Supper, not one of the Twelve, who wore a petalon • • Beloved Disciple of Jesus - the Jewish High Priest John • Testimony of John by Irenaeus of Lyons • How John, the author of the Fourth Gospel, Revelation and Epistles, was identified with the Apostle John, the son of Zebedee

The Jesus of the Gospels is Jesus through the eyes of eyewitnesses • Philosophical aspects of testimony • Witness is the basis of knowledge that requires trust • Testimony before the court of history • When participants and witnesses cannot help but testify - events “at the border of perception” • Theology evidence