Prologue

A little background before the story begins

This isn’t a theological book, and I’m not looking for depth of meaning. My field is psychology, and I’m interested in how people tick. With this in mind, if you’re looking for a deep theological volume, I might recommend Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology. If you’re looking to learn more about the life of Jesus, The Jesus Conspiracy by Gordon Thomas is a great, very easy-to-read book. If you’re looking for apologetics, anything that begins with “The Case For…” by Lee Strobel will give you what you’re looking for. I’m sure there are many other books I’ve neglected, but these are some of my favorites.

However, my approach is a little different. I’m not trying to cover ground already covered, and although, as a Christian, my obvious focus is Jesus, I’ve always been fascinated by the supporting cast and how they might have viewed the events going on around them. For me, these stories, often short and lacking in detail, are very thought-provoking. It is these ‘minor characters’ I want to explore, and try to see the world through their eyes a little as they prepare for the life of Jesus, walk with him, and then begin life without him. As Christians, we are called to be Christ-like, but a stepping stone is to be like the people who followed Jesus on Earth and see how their faith can inspire us. By looking at how the people around Jesus responded to him, we can, hopefully, learn more about how we should respond to him.

These stories are often short and lacking in detail, but that is what makes them so thought-provoking. By looking at how the people around Jesus responded to him, we can hopefully learn more about how we should respond to him.

I’ll be going through the Gospels in chronological order, guided by Gary Crossland’s Merged Gospels, to help keep all the stories in order. Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc., LSBible.org, and 316publishing.com.” There are several reasons for this:

• It’s one of the most literal English translations using formal equivalence.
• It restores God’s covenant name (Yahweh is used, not LORD, over 6,800 times in most translations). This gives God his name back.
• Because I will be pointing to prophecy in this book, we can be confident that what the Bible says is as close as can be to what was originally written.

This is not meant to be a deep theological volume, but it will provide more background and detail as the story unfolds.