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knowledge of tradition. It is so simple that it is audacious. The opening sentence of the book ��� ���I was the one who came down from Nazareth to be baptized by John in the River Jordan��� ��� is direct and stirring, the voice of a human being. We���re not talking about God; we���re talking about the Son of God as a human being. NM: That was my intent. What I wanted to do was treat the man in Jesus Christ, not the superman. I found the Gospels almost irritating. Obviously, if you read the Gospels, as in reading Shakespeare, you���re going to get certain sentences that are part of our literary culture. But generally speaking, reading the Gospels is not an altogether agreeable experience. For one thing, they are not that fabulously well written. CB: I knew you might say something like that. NM: For another, Jesus is not a man in the Gospels. He���s being told that God sent His Son as a human being among us, but the fact of the matter is that Jesus is a superman. He���s never challenged in a way where you can feel any fear in His heart. I thought, no, no, no. Any man, even if also a god, who goes through those extreme experiences is going to feel a great deal of fear. And that was the way I wanted to treat it. CB: In your book one thing I find incredible is that Christ Himself never says He is the Son of God. Other people say it about Him. He questions whether He is really the Son of God, so the final authority is always beyond Him. NM: At least in my book, there is some doubt in His mind, not whether He is the Son of God, but He doesn���t know how close God is to Him. People tend to think, well, you���re the Son of God, so it���s automatic. HYLAND 16