Four Portraits, One Jesus (2nd Edition)

A Survey of Jesus and the Gospels

By: Mark L. Strauss

Narrated by: Christopher Ragland

Length: 25 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

....To Christians worldwide, the man Jesus of Nazareth is the centerpiece of history, the object of faith, hope, and worship. Even those who do not follow him admit the vast influence of his life. For anyone interested in knowing more about Jesus, study of the four biblical Gospels is essential.

The second edition of Four Portraits, One Jesus has been updated throughout to meet the needs to today's students. It is a thorough yet accessible introduction to the four biblical Gospels and their subject, the life and person of Jesus. Like different artists rendering the same subject using different styles and points of view, the Gospels paint four highly distinctive portraits of the same remarkable Jesus.

With clarity and insight, Mark Strauss illuminates these four books addressing the following important areas:

• First he addresses the nature, origin, methods for study, and historical, religious, and cultural backgrounds of the Gospels.
• He then moves on to closer study of each narrative and its contribution to our understanding of Jesus, investigating things such as plot, characters, and theme.
• Finally, he pulls it all together with a detailed examination of what the Gospels teach about Jesus' ministry, message, death, and resurrection, with excursions into the quest for the historical Jesus and the historical reliability of the Gospels.

This textbook together with its workbook, video lectures, and laminated sheet gives students everything they need for a thorough and enriching study of Jesus and the Gospels.

Figures, maps, images, discussion questions, key terms, and a glossary are included in the audiobook companion PDF download.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2020 Mark L. Strauss (P)2022 Zondervan Academic

An interesting (and worrying) book

I want to start my review by saying that this is a thorough exploration of the Biblical Gospels. It is obvious that Dr. Strauss has ample knowledge of the text and its theology. Many of his insights are clever and invite the listener to a deeper reflection and discussion. The sections on the theology of each Gospel are enriching. In general, this is a mandatory stop in the Gospels study.

Despite the apparent strengths of this work, there are some things I find necessary to express.

First of all, and as usual, the narrators of these Audibles have a good performance (as a non-English speaking person it is crystal clear), but when it comes to pronunciation of other languages, they fail. This is just a cosmetic flaw, clearly exposed in this Audible.

But there are two aspects of this work that are worrying from an Evangelical perspective.

1. How polluted is Evangelical scholarship of High-critical theories. For instance, the way the author affirms Markian priority, ignoring works from Linnemann or Thomas, is a sample of the interference of liberal methodologies in Evangelical studies.

2. I understand that the author wanted to show the life and works of Jesus under the light of Historical methodology, but it is uncomfortable to listen to a book that claims to be Evangelical but does not take into account the doctrine of the Inerrancy of Scripture. The events in the life of the Lord are not "likely", they are facts, over the opinions of so-called scholars.

In a nutshell, this is a great book that shows that even Evangelical works must be read under a scrutinized eye.