Jesus on Trial: Investigating 5 Difficult Verses in the Gospels
The Cold-Case Christianity Podcast
ColdCaseChristianity.com
4.8 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 13 May 2026
⏱️ 75 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, I put five of Jesus' hardest sayings under the investigative spotlight. As a cold-case homicide detective, I've spent my career testing witness statements, examining context, and following the evidence wherever it leads. In this "case file," I apply that same approach to some of the most troubling verses in the Gospels.
Along the way, I'll walk through investigative tools you can use on any tough passage:
- Examining the historical and literary context
- Comparing parallel gospel accounts
- Understanding ancient language and idiom
- Testing skeptical vs. Christian explanations to see which best fits the facts
If you've ever wondered whether these verses disqualify Jesus as a trustworthy source of truth, this episode is for you.
Want to go deeper and learn how to think like a detective about your faith? Check out my book Forensic Faith for an in‑depth look at building a case for Christianity and living it out with confidence.
👉 If this podcast helps you:
- Please subscribe so you don't miss future "case files"
- Leave a rating and review in your podcast app—it really helps others discover the show
- Share this episode with someone who struggles with Jesus' difficult teachings
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Cold Case Christianity podcast, where a veteran Cold Case Homicide Detective investigates the truth of the Christian worldview. Jay Warner Wallace is a dateline featured detective, Christian apologist, and bestselling author. This weekly show applies real investigative tools to the claims of Christianity. Thanks for joining us in the Cold Case Christianity podcast. I am |
| 0:22.5 | Jay Warner Wallace. Okay, today we're going to talk about something that I've discovered a long time |
| 0:28.3 | ago working with witnesses and you often will get somebody who you've been trusting for a season. |
| 0:35.8 | Maybe you discover them in the case file and you call them and they seem to be a great source of information for everything related to this case. I mean, they're the ones who are making the case clear. Everything they say, you're able to corroborate. It just feels like, wow, this is going to be an articulate, you know, like they're everything you can hope for. And you're thinking, this is going to be inarticulate you know like they're everything you can |
| 0:54.2 | hope for and you're thinking this is going to be a great witness on the stand and you just you just trust |
| 0:59.7 | that hey this is going to lead us this this is somebody who I can come back to when I've got a question |
| 1:05.0 | about what happened in the day what happened related to this victim what happened related to this |
| 1:09.3 | suspect even and I can trust what they say and they're going to be credible in front of a jury. |
| 1:14.4 | And then as you're interviewing them, or they leave a phone call, they call your office and |
| 1:20.0 | they leave a message, and it's like, what? |
| 1:23.4 | They say something that just, at least on its face, or you find something, let's say |
| 1:27.3 | you've been talking to them and they're great. And then you discover a supplemental report from back in the day that you hadn't seen before. In this supplemental report, they were interviewed by somebody and they say something that's just, so maybe I'm wrong about this guy. Maybe, I mean, you can start to think that, right? They say something that causes you to doubt their credibility. |
| 1:46.0 | But then you have to ask yourself, well, hold on a minute. |
| 1:49.1 | There was a reason why I thought this witness was credible. |
| 1:52.8 | And I tested them under those four criteria that we use for eyewitnesses |
| 1:56.8 | that I talk about in cold case Christianity. |
| 1:58.5 | You know, they clearly were there. |
| 2:00.9 | I can demonstrate they were there to see what they said they saw. They have been corroborated over and over again, and what they've said to me in the past. And they haven't changed their story. There's not an issue of the changing story. They've been consistent for 35 years when they've been telling this story to others. and they don't possess any of the biases, |
| 2:21.9 | the kind of self-motivated biases of pursuing sex, money, or power. |
| 2:24.5 | There's no reason for this person to lie to me. |
| 2:28.9 | As a matter of fact, sometimes the witness has said something that cost them dearly for even making the claim. |
| 2:30.9 | So what am I supposed to do with this sideways statement? |
... |
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