The history of mankind is chiefly the record of the character and exploits of the men and women who exerted the greatest influence upon their generation and nation while the Scriptures were written to reveal to the human family a Person - its author and chief subject, Jesus Christ. "Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thornes, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the Man!" - John 19:5

The truthful Man . . . falsely accused. The innocent Man . . . illegally tried and wrongly convicted. The gentle Man . . . who suffered punishment few could imagine, much less endure. The murdered Man . . . who forgave His own merciless killers. The divine Man . . . who died as a common criminal. The willing Man . . . who gave His life for others. The ordinary Man . . . who was, in fact, the extraordinary Son of God. The pathway Jesus took to the cross of Calvary is commonly called "the Passion." This sorrowful path weaved through soul-wrenching prayers and illicit deals made in shadowy darkness. It descended into corrupted courts bereft of justice and circled by prejudiced rulers stripped of power. On this pathway of His passion, Jesus paused for a torturous scourging and plodded on doggedly to a horrific death on a hillside called the Skull. But why? In this incredible, historically accurate account, you will come face to face with Jesus-the Man of Sorrows. If you're honest, you'll find the amazing answer to why . . . and you'll change. When you stop long enough to look, to think, to imagine, and to truly Behold the Man, you'll never be the same again. Chuck Swindoll leads us through a detailed examination of the events surrounding Jesus as he follows the winding pathway of his passion to the cross. This story-based investigation of the last week of Jesus's life-from the Last Supper to his death-focuses on "Why?" And in his Epilogue to this powerful, insightful book, Swindoll clearly explains to the unchurched and non-Christian reader why Jesus was willing to walk this sacrificial path to die-he did it for them. Releasing simultaneously with Mel Gibson's stirring movie The Passion of The Christ, Swindoll's book provides Christians an excellent evangelistic follow-up tool to give to their unchurched or non-Christian friends and families who see the film. As Chuck said after a private viewing of the movie, "You'll never be the same again." And Behold . . . the Man will help ensure that fact.

A completely historical dramatization of the life of Jesus.

Behold the Man was the challenge made to all present at the trial of the Son of God. The responses have been varied and many. We who have accepted it and received Him as our Lord and Savior rejoice with unspeakable joy at each and every opportunity to behold him. To us, He is precious, above all, none greater than, none like unto Him: He is wonderful, He is love: He is altogether lovely. He is the One to know, to trust, to love; and to worship and serve. It is the desire of this writer that others may come to behold Him and the glory of our God, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Scripture says three times to Behold (look intently upon) Jesus. The first is the beginning of his ministry when John the Baptist exclaimed, Behold the Lamb of God (John 1:36). Another is when none in heaven or earth is qualified to take the little book (the title deed to the earthly kingdoms) from the hand of Him sitting on the throne, the Apostle John is told, Behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Rev. 5:5) The third is when Pilate, after finding no fault in Jesus, presented him before his accusers saying, Behold the Man! (John 19:5) Beholding the Lamb, we see the sacrificial Lamb that atones for sin. Beholding the Lion, we see the sovereign King that will make all things new. Beholding the Man, we see the second Adam who lived a perfect life among us. Knowing about this mans humanity is as important as knowing about the other two aspects of his being. So what kind of a man was Jesus? This book introduces the reader to the individual his contemporarys saw, while relying only on the Gospels as the source materials. His contemporaries saw someone quite different from the person modern Christians imagine him to be. The biblical Jesus was much more robust than contemporary teachers portray him. Due to incorrect, even disingenuous teaching, the modern church presents a witness that is less robust than was the case in previous generations. We need to behold the real biblical Jesus because, The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master. (Luke 6:40 KJV)

Lucid and inspiring, Behold the Man is a unique exploration of Catholic spirituality for men. Much of the literature written for Catholic men focuses on topical issues such as fatherhood and sexuality. While this book does not exclude these subjects, it is the first to present a comprehensive picture of Catholic male spirituality. What is authentic male Catholic spirituality? What distinguishes it from Protestant male spirituality? How does masculine spirituality complement feminine spirituality? These questions and many more are answered in this book. Drawing from Scripture and Church teaching, the author roots Catholic male spirituality in a covenant relationship with God and the cross of Jesus Christ. He demonstrates that when a man embraces the cross he is truly able to be himself—the man that God created and calls him to be. Behold the Man can deepen a man’s experience of Christ and help him to know the Lord more intimately.

Encounter the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth in this culmination of the Jerusalem Chronicles. How could Jesus—who preached righteousness before God, and love and mercy toward neighbors—be so hated and pursued? To the Temple officials, he was a threat to the livelihood and authority of the priesthood. To Herod Antipas, he was a threat to his ambition to be the King of the Jews. And to the Roman overlords, he was seen as a dangerous threat; a man who commanded an army of the common people. He could heal wounds, offer miraculous provisions, and even raise from the dead. If Jesus had accepted popular acclaim and become an earthly king, he would have been unstoppable. Jesus’s last days are explored through three people who interacted with him: Governor Pilate, for whom Judea will either make or break his career; Pilate’s wife, Claudia, desperately seeking aid for her much loved, crippled son; and Centurion Marcus Longinus, caught in the middle between loyalty to the Empire, love for Claudia, and an ever-increasing belief in Jesus as the Son of God. After encountering Jesus, none of them will ever be the same.

In this book, Colleen Conway looks at the construction of masculinity in New Testament depictions of Jesus. She argues that the New Testament writers necessarily engaged the predominant gender ideology of the Roman Empire, whether consciously or unconsciously. Although the notion of what constituted ideal masculinity in Greek and Roman cultures certainly pre-dated the Roman Empire, the emergence of the Principate concentrated this gender ideology on the figure of the emperor. Indeed, critical to the success of the empire was the portrayal of the emperor as the ideal man and the Roman citizen as one who aspired to be the same. Any person who was held up alongside the emperor as another source of authority would be assessed in terms of the cultural values represented in this Roman image of the "manly man." Conway examines a variety of ancient ideas of masculinity, as found in philosophical discourses, medical treaties, imperial documents, and ancient inscriptions. Manliness, in these accounts, was achieved through self-control over passions such as lust, anger, and greed. It was also gained through manly displays of courage, the endurance of pain, and death on behalf of others. With these texts as a starting point, Conway shows how the New Testament writings approach Jesus' gender identity. From Paul's early letters to the Gospels and Acts, to the book of Revelation, Christian writings in the Bible confront the potentially emasculating scandal of the cross and affirm Jesus as ideally masculine. Conway's study touches on such themes as the relationship between divinity and masculinity; the role of the body in relation to gender identity; and belief in Jesus as a means of achieving a more ideal form of masculinity. This impeccably researched and highly readable book reveals the importance of ancient gender ideology for the interpretation of Christian texts.

The first comprehensive study of how images of male beauty are projected onto society, Behold the Man: The Hype and Selling of Male Beauty in Media and Culture examines the role media and society play in creating the image of the idealized male. This book explores how these images are interpreted by all genders and sexual orientations in order to investigate the phenomenon’s effect on the self-esteem of adolescent and adult males. Behold the Man provides you with research and examples that identify this problem from many angles to help you realize that being a man is more than merely possessing muscles and good looks.Discussing examples in which both attractive men and women are idealized as “the norm,” Behold the Man argues that men are experiencing the same injustices as women--splashed on the covers of magazines and in advertisements, based on their sex appeal, sometimes to promote nothing more than their looks. Within Behold the Man, you‘ll find topics that relate to the reasons for and effects of male beauty standards, such as: aspects of male beauty, from Ancient Greek ideals to how it is visualized throughout history in art the vision of “the ideal male,” along with sexual connotations, in advertisements for clothing, cologne, sunglasses, automobiles, and shaving products the emphasis of strong, well-built males and their bodies in movies, music videos, and literature how men alter their bodies by dieting and cosmetic surgery to achieve the look found in advertisements today’s growing numbers of male eating disorders caused by the notion that only good-looking, muscular men are acceptable reasons behind the exploitation of the male body and the double standards for male beauty found within gay male communities how advertisers and authors faithfully follow the “bigger is better” theory--from pectoral and bicep muscles to penis sizeRecognizing how society has created and changed the appearance of the ideal male, this text explains to you the danger men of all ages face who feel they need to be physically handsome to be desirable. From Behold the Man, you’ll learn about the real messages of advertising and media, the problems they cause, and that true self-worth cannot be measured by physical attributes.