This novel tells the story of the Sermon on the Mount. Have you ever wondered why Jesus drew such huge crowds? Why families traveled hours and even days to hear him speak? This story answers those questions. The answers are all in the original Greek of the Gospels.

You will find this version of the Sermon much more entertaining and amusing than typical biblical translations. Jesus's words here also follow the ancient Greek much more closely. They capture not only what he said but how he said it. The Jesus portrayed here is warm and loving but witty, surprising, and sometimes shocking. He uses humor, wordplay, catchphrases, and even rhyming to reach his listeners. This Jesus has fun teaching, but he also uses drama to evoke emotions.

The novel is told from the perspective of six witnesses who saw Jesus speak that day. Jesus's words are translated as they would have heard them at the time, not as they are interpreted through the following millennia. The result is a more compelling vision of how Jesus must have taught. His words have many possible meanings in the original Greek that are lost in translation. By using his interactions with an audience, we can explore these different shades of meaning.

This story presumes that Jesus taught primarily by answering questions. It supposes that only his answers were preserved. We see a lot of evidence for this in the original Greek. Verses often start with Greek words like "because" as if responding to a question. However, since Matthew did not record those questions, such discordant elements are edited out in translation. The result is the Sermon reads like a collection of disconnected sayings rather than a persuasive whole. There are many grammatical differences between the original Greek and our biblical translations. By putting the Sermon into a dialogue, we can accurately translate all the Greek into grammatical English.

This novel re-creates the types of questions and events that could have generated Jesus's lessons. Where there is no apparent connection between one topic and the next in the Sermon, an audience member introduces the new subject. In most cases, a hidden dimension of Jesus's Greek inspires that question. This allows his words to flow more smoothly and follow the original Greek much more closely. It also reveals many hidden patterns in Jesus's Greek that are lost in standard translation.

The events, questions, and audience reactions here are fictional and designed to be dramatic and entertaining. The action and conflicts in the story are, however, based upon our knowledge of the era. Much of this information comes from the Gospels themselves. This work is based on fifteen years of research into the ancient Greek of Jesus's words in the Gospels at ChristsWords.com.