Four Portraits, One Jesus, 2nd Edition: A Survey of Jesus and the Gospels

by Mark L. Strauss

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


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.

Genres: Theology, Christian, Biblical Studies, New Testament, Nonfiction, Christianity, History

656 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2007

About the author

Mark Lehman Strauss is an American biblical scholar and professor of the New Testament at Bethel Seminary San Diego, which is part of Bethel University, Minnesota. His areas of expertise include New Testament Gospels and Bible translation.

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book for any Christian to read. It consists of four sections. The first deals with the Gospel genre and various methods of studying them. The second deals with the historical setting of the Gospels, and this really helps to bring the Gospels alive to the reader. The third section reviews the individual Gospel accounts showing their unique perspective of Jesus. The final section seeks to evaluate the Gospels as history.
The book is conservative-evangelical, and defends the traditional Christian view by robustly challenging liberal-critical scholarship. However, the book is not overly academic, and is readily understood by the average man. If you are looking for a good book about Jesus, that will help you to defend your faith better to your non-Christian friends - look no further than this book. It is a gold mine of information.

[Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strauss's book gives a broad and well written overview of the Gospels as a whole, each of the four Gospels, and issues surrounding them. The setup of the book is very "textbookish", making it accessible and organized to most any reader. I would recommend this book to someone who is wanting to begin and/or increase their knowledge of the Gospels and the many topics included within that field. This book helpfully addresses questions such as "Why are there four Gospels?", "What are the distinctives of each?", and "Are they reliable?".

[Dave Weiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this for a masters class I am taking and it was really good. Very readable and comprehensible with a depth of good information on the Gospels and the arguments people bring against it, written from the perspective of a strong believer. This is a great apologetics tool. A very worthwhile read.

[Pig Rieke · Rating 3 out of 5]

500+ pages of textbook material - literally. The author presents a variety of theories on subjects ranging from the production of the gospels, historical setting, Jesus, theological themes, ect. In evaluating different academics and ideas, he shows how the unorthodox prove to be logically inconsistent, fail to take the text seriously, lack understanding of the historical and cultural setting, ect. On the other hand, the author presents and proves the Biblical witness as reliable and to be believed.

The three star review is not a negative critique. The book is literally a text book. Thus, it falls into my three star category of ‘solid, but not going to read again.’

[Brandon Vaughan · Rating 5 out of 5]

As with anything else, I don’t agree 100% with everything in this book. However, there is so much great information in this book that a 5 star review is a no brainer. Strauss gives the historical background, customs, culture, dates, author, audience, context and exegesis of each gospel. He even gives extra Biblical historical sources that give credence to the historical Jesus, His miracles, Crucifixion and resurrection. He also gives an academic overview of some of the scrutiny concerning the gospels. This is a must have reference book for the Pastor.

[Tim Mixon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really comprehensive background into the world the four gospels were written in. The sections on each gospel are fairly short—don’t think of this as a commentary on any of the gospels, but a foundation to understanding them. It is readable enough for a lay person to read through the entire volume, but I think it will also be valuable for years to come as a reference that will return to over and over again for certain aspects as I read the gospels in the future.

[Laurel Hicks · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is well worth reading, but the first two chapters are puzzling and not in tune with the rest of the book. Strauss discusses the authors of the four gospels and their reasons for writing but does not once in that context mention the Holy Spirit, not even Christ’s promise that the Paraclete would recall all things to their remembrance. I wonder who he is trying to impress?

[Caroline Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I am thankful it was assigned in chapters and we took quizzes all semester bc it was much more approachable than other 600 paged text books.

I really liked how it was a big, glossy-paged text book! It felt like college and was a nice change of pace 😊

[Kaitlyn Pindak · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a good investment for whoever wants a good, in-depth survey of the gospels!

Really enjoyed this and hope to read again when I have more time to slowly go through it :)

[Jarod Grubbs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great New Testament Survey book. Helpful if you want to understand the background of the New Testament and dive deeper into the gospels and their exaltation of Jesus.

[Tommyboy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an awesome textbook that never felt like it went over my head. I feel like a lot of these kinds of books will tend to use the big words that nobody knows, talk about schools of thought without explaining them, etc. This book didn’t do that at all! Super awesome information on context surrounding the gospels, the point of each of the gospels, and the historical reliability of them.

A very slight negative is that at times you could feel the author’s bias towards Jesus. I do think that’s kinda the whole point, but it is a textbook. But shoot I bet most school text books have bias in them as well.

[Shelby J Holloway · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this textbook! Super helpful and one I will keep on my shelf when I study the Gospels.

[John Yelverton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I will give credit where credit is due, and say that Mark Strauss knows his stuff. What I did not like was the immense catering to the "historical" Jesus, and how even though Strauss will eventually point out how they're wrong, he has given them so much lip service that you're not entirely sure if he completely disagrees with them or not.

[Jeremy Mueller · Rating 4 out of 5]

A robust introduction to the gospels and specifically to the various portraits of Jesus in the gospels. Like the many beautiful refractions of a diamond, the beauty of our Lord Jesus Christ – his person and work – is multi-faceted. I know I’ll be able to use this book as a reference resource in the future!

[Timothy Decker · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars... it is good enough to use as a classroom textbook this fall (2018), however there were some matters of disagreement that caused me to gig it 1 star.

[Kumar Dixit · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been teaching a college class called Jesus and the Gospels for many years. I’ve decided to use a new textbook by this author. This audiobook is a 6-hour lecture by the author, based on his book.

If you want to delve in the details of the gospels without feeling like you have to wade through the research and writings of a Ph.D. professor, this book is for you. Strass, presents the topic quickly, with modern-day examples to help bridges the first-century Palestinian culture to today’s setting.

The book covers all of the aspects you would expect; historical-critical analysis, cultural setting, language differences, important themes, and discrepancies that scholars often discuss.

Also, the book then spends a small amount of time focusing on each of the gospels separately, providing a closer examination of the Gospel and what the original author was trying to convey through linguistic and literary styles.

Towards the end, Strauss transitions from the Gospels to addressing the historical Jesus, demonstrating how the Bible and some, but many outside sources, can give proof to the life of Jesus. He then discusses a few controversial topics, such as miracles and the divinity of Jesus.

For the most part, the writer provides an excellent overview of the subject. He is clearly coming from a Christian perspective, assuming the reader already has a belief that these books are indeed inspired.

Upon completion, I felt the author addressed some other issues in the latter half of the book, where his apologetic stance was weakened by failing to address some of the problem areas in the Bible, like other scholars ( like Aslan, Mark Clark, or even Bishop Spong).

In some ways, the author could have built a stronger case on focusing on just the biblical literature (the four Gospels) instead of attempting to provide a weakened argument for the historical Jesus, the case for miracles, etc.

In the end, This is one of the best books that provide a layman’s approach to the gospels.

[Jerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Strauss did a fantastic job with this book. While I did have to read it as a class textbook, unlike some school books, this one did not read like stereo instructions. It was crisp and lively. Informative but not boring. The reader is given plenty of information to help them decide whether the author is being true or not. Many theological books are filled with big philosophical words that can cloud the minds of it's readers. While Dr. Strauss does use a few of the words, most of this book is for the layman as Dr. Strauss chooses a 'dumbed down' common sense approach. If you are wondering if the Gospels are or can be viewed as historically reliable, then this book is for you.

[Steven Tryon · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent introduction to and overview of the four gospels. While aimed at the general reader, it does presume a familiarity with the New Testament, minimally at least to have read through the four gospels.

For those who have not, my recommendation would be to read the gospels in any reasonably current translation (New International Version if you don't already have one), then to read "Four Portraits", and to finish with another trip through the gospels.

Not light reading, but well worth the effort.

[Rick Perez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great survey book of the Four Gospels! I read the book and took notes while watching Mark Strauss given lectures on each chapter through the Master Lecture Series website! What I enjoyed most was the review of the literary devices & narrative features along with the theological reviews for each Gospel! This has encouraged me to read the each Gospel as stand alone treatments rather than as a harmonized whole.

[Bradley Somers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Four Portraits-One Jesus, is a text book. It is an excellent and acessible resource for those who want to study the Gospels. It will take you into most of the major arguments of how and why to read the Gospel text’s correctly without leading you down and abandoning you in the rabbit hole of textual critiques. Highly recommend it to anyone who wants a clear, basic, but firm foundation in the Gospels.

[Alex Robinson]

More than just a survey, this work covers many important layers surrounding the gospels. It has opened my eyes to so much that I did not know or previously consider and has stirred me up to spend more time in the gospels and in their historical and cultural background for in so doing, I get a closer glimpse of my Savior and King! I will definitely go back to this work over and over when studying the gospels.

[Kyleigh Dunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Disclaimer: I've only read the first half)

This is a useful, helpful book to have around, full of all sorts of historical and biblical information. It's not very in-depth, but good for a start or to look up more basic answers. Nice to have for reference, but not great to read cover-to-cover as it's very textbook-y and I get more out of an actual commentary or monographs.

[Logan Prettyman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very excellent book! He does well in both engaging with critical scholarship while remaining true to evangelical convictions. Each section is greatly beneficial to understanding the gospels and Jesus. My only complaint is that his chapter on John is weak in its literary analysis and its general overview.

[Ronald J. Pauleus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rich book.


“The evidence further suggests that Jesus did not remain in the tomb but rose alive on the third day, vindicating his claim to be the Lord’s Messiah, God’s agent of salvation for Israel and for the world. Reigning now at the right hand of God, he will one day return to bring salvation to his people and to judge the world.”

[Sarah Rider · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for BIB 310: Life and Teachings of Jesus.

This book is a great textbook introduction and extrapolation into the biblical foundation, theology, and theme of the life of Jesus. I found it very enriching and interesting. I personally could not listen to it as an audio book, as the material was too dense for me to absorb well in that manner, so it has been a dedicated labor to finish.

[Peter Kiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent introduction to the Gospels and their unique characteristics. There were plenty of times I scratched my head at Strauss's positions, such as when he defended the Roman Catholic reading of Jesus building his church on Peter, but otherwise, he was fairly middle of the road in evangelical doctrine. None of it blew my socks off, but it's a fine book and a good resource.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent overview of the four Gospels and the life of Jesus Christ. An engaging textbook that is both authoritative and interesting to read. Read as part of New Testament Survey I with Dr. Jonathan Pennington at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

[Joshua Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite good. Intended as an accessible introduction to gospel studies, which it does well, but the inevitable downside is that it felt as though some areas were given a bit of a surface level treatment. Would recommend to anyone wanting to study the gospels a bit deeper.

3.5⭐ (rounded to 4⭐)

[Josiah Cedeño · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really thorough comprehensive view of the four gospels. I loved the maps and diagrams especially the ones from the week of Christ’s death. This book does have some pretty common information about skeptics regarding Christ’s resurrection that I’ve read in a few other books but overall really solid.

[Payton M. Arnett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my textbook for a class I took on The Gospels. I read the whole book, and thoroughly enjoyed it! Strauss provides a good balance of scholarly objectivity while never denying his Christian faith. I learned much and would highly recommend!