Includes index.

Almost no one agrees on who came to that stable in Bethlehem two thousand years ago, how many came, where they came from, whether they were sages or kings, and what they gave to that special child. The Gospels don't agree, and neither do any other sources written within a hundred years of the birth of Jesus. Unraveling that mystery not only sent Roberts on an adventure in the footsteps of the Magi that took him from Tehran to Bethlehem, but revealed a religious crisis so profound that even two thousand years later it is difficult to tell whether or not it was resolved for the benefit of humankind. Roberts, a gifted and well-reviewed travel writer, has woven the journey of the Magi with a contemporary journey overland - by car and by camel - from Iran to Bethlehem. Part travel memoir, part history, and part ground-breaking religious scholarship, In Search of the Birth of Jesus will change forever the way we see the unfolding of religion and civilization since the birth of Christ.