Many Biblical scholars maintain that the recovery of the historical Jesus is impossible, that “only a whisper” of him remains in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They point out that the gospel writers, unconstrained by modern standards of authorship, freely edited the oral tradition about Jesus, putting words in his mouth and altering events as they infused their stories with their own doctrinal beliefs.

Like roads in a combat zone, these gospels do indeed have their IEDs—improvised EDITORIAL devices—which tear apart the consistency of Jesus’ message. A good example is Mark 10:30, which in clumsy, contradictory fashion lends scriptural support to the popular perversity called “The Prosperity Gospel.”

The upshot of this Biblical scholarship is that educated Christians often seek nourishment for their faith from interpretive books about Jesus rather than from the gospels themselves. Such books provide useful historical and theological insight but cannot impart the riveting religious experience of a gospel proclamation. Small wonder that there is spiritual hunger among those who stand near the left margin of the Christian fold. Yet this ordained minister and attorney, who writes under the pen name “Theophilus,” has spent decades sifting the evidence in the canonical gospels, ferreting out the IEDs, and believes that these Biblical scholars are far too timid in their assessment.

Cut the gospels apart, saying by saying, parable by parable, event by event—strip away the obvious, awkward doctrinal accretion and spin—and there remains a solidly consistent core, the unmistakable face and flavor of a man. And though he is neither the last Jewish prophet nor the founder of the religion of the Roman Empire, he is well-described by an early church hymn recited in Philippians 2:6-11. Experience him here, get caught in his net and catch his fire, not in another interpretive book about him but in a bold new proclamation of the Jesus story: Life of Truth.