Compiler of the evidence
McDowell set out as a sceptical law student to disprove Christianity and ended up compiling Evidence That Demands a Verdict, which has functioned as a reference shelf for lay apologists since 1972 — manuscript counts, archaeological findings, fulfilled prophecies and extra-biblical citations, gathered in one place.
He also popularised the "trilemma" — that Jesus' claims leave you with liar, lunatic or Lord and no comfortable fourth option — which he took from C. S. Lewis.
Use the book as an index that points you to primary sources, not as a final authority. The 2017 edition, revised with his son Sean McDowell, corrects material that had aged badly in earlier printings.
Roman historians, Jewish records and archaeology that corroborate the Gospel accounts — the evidence for Jesus of Nazareth that does not come from Christians.
Stones, inscriptions and tunnels that name biblical kings, governors and places — what the ground has confirmed, where the debate is still open, and what archaeology can never prove.
What a shepherd found in the caves at Qumran in 1947, what the scrolls show about how faithfully the Old Testament was copied, and which of the sensational claims about them you can safely ignore.