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The Christ of the Gospels: An exegetical study
650 pages
650 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1939
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May 7, 2026
The Christ of the Gospels by J. W. Shepard provides engaging commentary and speculation on the accounts of Jesus’ life in the four canonical Gospels. The author starts by giving a short sketch of the historical and ideological setting current to the world of the Gospels and then discusses the various ancient authorities on Jesus’ life, primarily focusing on the four Gospels and their authors. The book then gets to the main part of the commentary on the Gospels, dividing Jesus’ ministry into seven major parts. In each section, Shepard goes through the texts in chronological order, providing background information and explaining each passage, as well as often giving a paraphrased and expanded version of the text with supplied emotions and motivations for the figures involved. The work goes along well with a harmony as the commentary is given on the combined text of all sections of each Gospel that cover the event being analyzed.
The observations that Shepard makes provide valuable insight into the life of Christ and the backdrop to certain accounts. On the genealogies in Luke and Matthew in particular, he comments that “[t]he Virgin-birth of Jesus is safe-guarded in the genealogies. The word begat is used in the successive stages of the descent down to Joseph (Matt. 1:16), but there the statement is altered. ‘And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus.'" This was enlightening to me, as I had never before noticed that the genealogies are careful not to say that Joseph is Jesus’ father, protecting Christ’s deity. Overall, Shepard offers a strong Christology, emphasizing both Jesus’ humanity and deity. On the humanity side, the book comments that Christ’s “moral and spiritual development was just as real as the physical and intellectual" while at the same time affirming that Christ’s “humanity was as perfect as His Deity was complete." On the deity side, Shepard highlights what made Jesus’ self-view so unusual, pointing out that “His unique claim…was, that He himself was the interpreter of God to men." As mind boggling as it is, the Scriptures clearly affirm that Jesus really did grow physically and mentally as a man, while still being truly God. This description of Shepard helped me to come to a fuller understanding of the incarnation.
The author also includes a lot of speculation in his comments on particular passages, with some of the speculation being more warranted than others. One of the speculations that I think is helpful is in the description of Jesus as the synagogue where the author says that “Jesus came into the synagogue on the sabbath day according to the habit He had formed in early life. If the boy does not form the habit of going to church the man will not follow that custom." This is not only likely the case that Jesus was a regular attendee for his whole life given the apparent religious devotion of His parents, but it also presents a pastoral application on how important Biblical habits are, especially meeting with fellow believers.
However, some of the speculations are significantly less justified and not quite as helpful. For instance, Shepard comments that “His foster-father Joseph was known for his saintliness of character and integrity of conduct (Matt. 7:11)” but this is not what the verse cited says at all. Matthew 7:11 says, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him,” which clearly is not talking about Joseph’s character, but rather about God the Father’s character. In reference to Zaccheus, Shepard confidently states that “[t]he rigidly unsympathetic pharisaism of Jewish fellow-townsmen…had produced in him a resentment as deep as life, and he had resolved in his spirit never to humble his pride in any admission of wrong-doing to them." While this is theoretically possible, there is simply no evidence that this is the case. Nothing in the passage in question implies any bitterness from Zaccheus against the Jews around him, and it does not seem to help explain anything in the account by positing this. One last example of unfounded speculation is that in relation to Jesus’ encouragement to pray for good gifts, Shepard describes that “[i]n each case there was a certain similarity between the thing asked for and the thing that might have been given in deception. The loaf of bread resembles in some cases a stone, the fish a serpent, and the scorpion, with its legs closed about it, an egg." While perhaps one could say that bread can look like a rock, the other two comparisons are a huge stretch, thus it does not appear that Jesus was making the same visual comparison that Shepard makes. In general, while some of the comments may go past what the text of the Bible actually says, The Christ of the Gospels supplies helpful background information and thoughts on the Gospels for the student of Scripture.
The observations that Shepard makes provide valuable insight into the life of Christ and the backdrop to certain accounts. On the genealogies in Luke and Matthew in particular, he comments that “[t]he Virgin-birth of Jesus is safe-guarded in the genealogies. The word begat is used in the successive stages of the descent down to Joseph (Matt. 1:16), but there the statement is altered. ‘And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus.'" This was enlightening to me, as I had never before noticed that the genealogies are careful not to say that Joseph is Jesus’ father, protecting Christ’s deity. Overall, Shepard offers a strong Christology, emphasizing both Jesus’ humanity and deity. On the humanity side, the book comments that Christ’s “moral and spiritual development was just as real as the physical and intellectual" while at the same time affirming that Christ’s “humanity was as perfect as His Deity was complete." On the deity side, Shepard highlights what made Jesus’ self-view so unusual, pointing out that “His unique claim…was, that He himself was the interpreter of God to men." As mind boggling as it is, the Scriptures clearly affirm that Jesus really did grow physically and mentally as a man, while still being truly God. This description of Shepard helped me to come to a fuller understanding of the incarnation.
The author also includes a lot of speculation in his comments on particular passages, with some of the speculation being more warranted than others. One of the speculations that I think is helpful is in the description of Jesus as the synagogue where the author says that “Jesus came into the synagogue on the sabbath day according to the habit He had formed in early life. If the boy does not form the habit of going to church the man will not follow that custom." This is not only likely the case that Jesus was a regular attendee for his whole life given the apparent religious devotion of His parents, but it also presents a pastoral application on how important Biblical habits are, especially meeting with fellow believers.
However, some of the speculations are significantly less justified and not quite as helpful. For instance, Shepard comments that “His foster-father Joseph was known for his saintliness of character and integrity of conduct (Matt. 7:11)” but this is not what the verse cited says at all. Matthew 7:11 says, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him,” which clearly is not talking about Joseph’s character, but rather about God the Father’s character. In reference to Zaccheus, Shepard confidently states that “[t]he rigidly unsympathetic pharisaism of Jewish fellow-townsmen…had produced in him a resentment as deep as life, and he had resolved in his spirit never to humble his pride in any admission of wrong-doing to them." While this is theoretically possible, there is simply no evidence that this is the case. Nothing in the passage in question implies any bitterness from Zaccheus against the Jews around him, and it does not seem to help explain anything in the account by positing this. One last example of unfounded speculation is that in relation to Jesus’ encouragement to pray for good gifts, Shepard describes that “[i]n each case there was a certain similarity between the thing asked for and the thing that might have been given in deception. The loaf of bread resembles in some cases a stone, the fish a serpent, and the scorpion, with its legs closed about it, an egg." While perhaps one could say that bread can look like a rock, the other two comparisons are a huge stretch, thus it does not appear that Jesus was making the same visual comparison that Shepard makes. In general, while some of the comments may go past what the text of the Bible actually says, The Christ of the Gospels supplies helpful background information and thoughts on the Gospels for the student of Scripture.
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