Robert Hutchinson

About Robert Hutchinson

I was born and raised Catholic in the Pacific Northwest, attending Catholic grade school, high school and college. After graduating from a Jesuit university, I moved to Israel to study Hebrew and stayed for two years. It utterly transformed me. I spent my free time exploring Biblical sites throughout the Galilee region and south to Jerusalem. I became obsessed with the Jewish origins of Christianity and how these origins can be seen in little-known clues within the New Testament text itself (e.g., "wash with a fist," pygmē, in Mark 7:3). When I returned from Israel, I was determined to figure out who the mysterious figure of Jesus Christ really was. I spent eight years studying the New Testament in an evangelical university, and then went on to do graduate studies in the philosophy of religion. The more I learned, the more mysterious Jesus became. Along the way, I discovered that much of what I took for granted as a cradle Catholic -- the catechism, the sacraments and Sunday Mass -- was actually the key to everything. Ever since, I've spent my time writing books about early Christianity, the Catholic Church and the scholarly search for who and what Jesus was all about. As difficult it is for many today to accept, I believe Jesus was precisely who the New Testament said he was and is, the divine Son of God sent to rescue human beings from themselves.