On a faraway spring morning, in a remote corner of the Roman empire, soldiers crucified a Galilean Jew known as Jesus of Nazareth. No doubt the ruling authorities believed he would be quickly forgotten, a mere blip in history, one of many hundreds they had crucified. Yet, almost two thousand years later, Jesus is widely recognised as one of the most important persons who has ever lived; many would say the most important person.

Arguably the week in which Jesus died is the most momentous week in the history of the world. Probably more has been written about this week (‘Passion Week’ or ‘Holy Week’) than about any other week in history. There are probably more paintings of the crucifixion than of any other historical event (for example, see fig. 1.1). However, there is a problem. Our main sources of information about the last week of Jesus, the four gospels, appear to contradict each other. The purpose of this book is to present new information that reveals that the four gospels in fact give a remarkably coherent account of the last days of Jesus. This enables us to reconstruct these days in detail. The new information presented in this book also throws new light upon our understanding of the words and actions of Jesus.