Dr Adam Bradford believes he has discovered a significant new insight into Jesus Christ. In “The Jesus Discovery” he explains why he believes that Jesus was not an unschooled peasant preacher, as many depict him. Instead, he claims that Jesus came from a middle class family and would have been schooled in Jerusalem’s top school of Rabbis. This, he says, explains how the religious authorities treated him before and after his trial.

Is there evidence for this view, and what difference would it make if it were true?

New Testament Scholar David Instone-Brewer debates the evidence with Adam.