"In a book that took eight years to research and write, leading Bible scholar Bart D. Ehrman explores how an apocalyptic prophet from the backwaters of rural Galilee crucified for crimes against the state came to be thought of as equal with the one God Almighty Creator of all things. Ehrman sketches Jesus's transformation from a human prophet to the Son of God exalted to divine status at his resurrection. Only when some of Jesus's followers had visions of him after his death-- alive again-- did anyone come to think that he, the prophet from Galilee, had become God. And what they meant by that was not at all what people mean today" -- dust jacket flap

Divine humans in ancient Greece and Rome -- Divine humans in ancient Judaism -- Did Jesus think he was God? -- Resurrection of Jesus: what we cannot know -- Resurrection of Jesus: what we can know -- Beginnings of Christology: Christ as exalted to Heaven -- Jesus as God on Earth: early incarnation Christologies -- After the New Testament: Christological dead ends of the second and third centuries -- Ortho-Paradoxes on the road to Nicea -- Epilogue: Jesus as God: the aftermath