What if Jesus were to tell you in first person about His time on earth? "You are about to read an account of the life and ministry of Jesus that combines all four gospels into a single narrative and allows Jesus himself to tell us the story," writes veteran Bible translator Robert H. Mounce at the beginning of Jesus, In His Own Words. "Although the style is contemporary, the desire is to clarify the meaning of the original text rather than to impress the reader with clever phrases."

To that end, Mounce's more conversational interpretation of the Gospels allows the reader to "be there" during Christ's birth and boyhood, at his baptism by John the Baptist, on the hillside when he spoke about the kingdom, amidst the miracle workings, and so on. His approach makes the words fresh to longtime believers and inviting to those seeking Scripture for the first time. Complementing the prosaic text, a full index of people, places, verse units, basic themes, and paragraph headings is also included.