What if Jesus didn't come 2000 years ago ...

That's the borderline-blasphemous premise of Eli, by Bill Myers (Zondervan, 2000). The publisher's blurb asks

What If Jesus Had Not Come Until Today? Who Would Follow Him? Who Would Kill Him?

A fiery car crash hurls TV journalist Conrad Davis into another world exactly like ours except for one detail—Jesus Christ did not come 2,000 years ago, but today.

Starting with angels heralding a birth in the back of a motel laundry room, the skeptical Davis watches the gospel unfold in today's society as a Messiah in T-shirt and blue jeans heals, raises people from the dead, and speaks such startling truths that he captures the heart of a nation.

But the young man's actions and his criticism of the religious establishment earn him enemies as ruthless as they are powerful.

An intense and thought-provoking novel, Eli strips away religious tradition to present Jesus fresh and unvarnished. With gripping immediacy, Bill Myers weaves a story whose truth will refresh your faith.

Just from this I was hooked, and not just because I have a fondness for "What if ...?" books like Harry Turtledove's. What hooked me was the potential controversy of rewriting scripture. That's a gutsy thing to do, especially with a lot of Christians out there taking the Bible as a word-for-word truth.

The Bible is the Truth, but just as Jesus taught that no one church or denomination has the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, I have some issues with the afore-mentioned literalness as humans are involved with the writing, translation, and retranslation of the Bible so errors had to have crept in even without subsequent interpretation.

So this book takes the life of Jesus and looks at it from a fresh perspective that renders His teachings in a contemporary fashion. Almost like reading passages from The Message translation of the Bible versus the King James edition but with all the locations and names updated. Any version brings tears to my eyes, but Mr. Myers' version gives the story a grittier, "you are there" perspective that can't be dismissed so the reader is more quickly drawn in and the events are relevant more quickly. Throughout even the retelling of classic parables has allusions to current events and social customs.

Think of it as a literature version of Jesus Christ Superstar, if you will -- a retelling for another generation. All the elements are there, but a new face opens it to a new audience. Highly recommended and once I get through the rest of my current reading list I'll probably come back to it and start making notes. I can see how this approach might add to a ministry or to witnessing.