Kris McGregor speaks with Gary Michuta about his book The Gospel Truth: How We Can Know What Christ Taught, which examines how the teachings of Jesus were accurately preserved and transmitted. Michuta frames the Gospels like a careful investigation, looking not only at the written texts but also at the living Jewish community that received, memorized, and handed on Jesus’ words. He explains how first-century Jewish culture relied on structured memory techniques—such as rhythm, repetition, dialogue, and setting—to ensure faithful transmission long before widespread literacy. These features, often mistaken as stylistic quirks, reveal an intentional design that allowed disciples to recall and proclaim Jesus’ teaching with remarkable reliability.

The book addresses common objections, including differences between Gospel accounts, translation concerns, and claims of later embellishment. Variations between the Gospels resemble authentic eyewitness testimony rather than collusion, while narrative details—locations, audiences, and historical markers—invite verification by original hearers. Radical teachings, such as Jesus’ divine claims and the Bread of Life discourse, demanded careful preservation because of their shocking nature. They also discuss the role of Sacred Tradition and the Church in safeguarding not only the text but its meaning, warning against modern paraphrases or private revelations detached from the consistent teaching handed down across Christian history.

1. How does understanding the Jewish cultural and educational context of the first century shape the way I read and hear the Gospels today?
2. In what ways does viewing the Gospels as living testimony within a community change my confidence in their historical reliability?
3. How do the memory techniques described in this episode challenge modern assumptions about oral tradition and accuracy?
4. What do the differences among the four Gospel accounts reveal about truth, witness, and human perspective?
5. How does the idea of the Gospels “inviting verification” affect my trust in what they record about Jesus?
6. Why is it significant that radical teachings, such as the Bread of Life discourse, were preserved even when they caused followers to walk away?
7. How does Sacred Tradition help me understand Scripture beyond the text alone?
8. What risks arise when Scripture is paraphrased or reinterpreted apart from the Church’s continuous teaching?
9. How does hearing the Gospel proclaimed within the Church connect me to the earliest Christian communities?
10. In what ways am I called not only to study the Gospels but to allow them to shape my life and faith today?

From the book description:

“Hundreds of books have been written to vindicate the Gospels by noting that they were written closer to the events they record than any other ancient history. But how do we know that they accurately recorded what Jesus said and did? How do we know they didn’t fabricate their contents? That Jesus really did work the miracles reported in the Gospels? Most important of all, how do we know what is the authentic interpretation of his words and deeds?

Christian apologists have largely neglected to answer these significant questions because they have focused instead on vindicating the Gospels apart from the community that wrote them.

The Gospel Truth fills in this gap by demonstrating that a concerted and sophisticated effort was made to ensure that what Jesus taught and did was accurately retained, recorded, verified, and passed on to future believers. It also shows how we can know whether our copies of Scripture reflect the original, whether the books in our Bible really belong there, and ways to know how to correctly understand them.”

About the Author: Gary Michuta is the author of Revolt against Reality: Fighting the Enemies of Sanity and Truth from the Serpent to the State, Hostile Witnesses: How the Enemies of the Church Prove Christianity, The Case for the Deuterocanon: Arguments and Evidence, Why Catholic Bibles Are Bigger, and several other apologetic works. Gary is an instructor of apologetics for Home School Connections and is the host of “Hands On Apologetics” on Virgin Most Powerful Radio.