Disinformation about Jesus abounds. A quick search turns up conspiracy theories about Jesus’ relationship with Mary Magdalene, one-sided visions of a first century Zealot, and some who even question his very existence. Brant Pitre has written a clear and concise book that lays out what we know about Jesus and how we know it.

Bart Ehrman is Pitre’s unofficial dialogue partner throughout the book. While Ehrman does believe in Jesus’ existence (a point Ehrman made clear in his book, Did Jesus Exist?), he undermines the reliability of our information about Jesus by using misapplied metaphors like the telephone game. Pitre is not afraid to call out the obvious: “this so-called ‘analogy’ is completely anachronistic and has no place in any serious historical study of Jesus and the Gospels” (4).

Pitre is like a breath of fresh air. His chapters are logically argued (with clearly numbered sub-points for the analytically-minded). He covers everything from the authorship of the Gospels, the date of the Gospels, and the apocryphal gospels, to Jesus’ understanding of his identity which led to his crucifixion and resurrection.

The Case for Jesus is a mash-up of history and Christology that clears away the conspiratorial clutter so that people can see Jesus clearly.

Pitre, Brant. The Case for Jesus: The Biblical and Historical Evidence for Christ. Crown, 2016.