What the Gospels Meant - Softcover

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Praise for What the Gospels Meant

"Full of riches . . . Wills brings to bear the skills that have justly brought him renown as America's greatest public intellectual: encyclopedic erudition, concise prose and a polyglot's gift for ancient languages. . . . This introduces . . . biblical scholarship as a whole to a wide audience of readers hungry for a sophisticated account of those eternally curious texts."
--Chicago Tribune

"What readers will find here is an engaging look at the Gospels, informed by the best biblical scholarship, as well as by Wills's own faith. . . . This eminently readable volume . . . underscores the attributes of each narrative to highlight truths more crucial than whether there were four discrete Evangelists."
--The New York Times Book Review

"Wills's scholarship . . . is impeccable, placing the gospels within their original cultural and religious context . . . A book that offers profound spiritual and historical insight in an accessible and intriguing format."
--BookPage

"Poetic, penetrating, and moving. General readers and scholars alike will profit from Mr. Wills's basic contention, that reason and faith are not antinomies."
--The New York Sun

"An engrossingly concise sequel to his Paul book. Wills . . . shows that [the Gospels are] theological statements, applying Jesus to the different situations confronting each writer's community."
--The Boston Globe

"Readers willing to have their impressions about these texts challenged by an erudite scholar will find this to be fascinating and worthwhile reading."
--Publishers Weekly

"A remarkable achievement--a learned yet eminently readable and provocative exploration of the four small books that reveal most of what's known about the life and death of Jesus."
--Los Angeles Times

The author of What Paul Meant and What Jesus Meant presents a biblical analysis of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, evaluating each for their evangelistic style and goals while revealing key differences in how each writer portrayed Jesus. Reprint.