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A careful examination of the diversity of structure and detail of each gospel writer's account of Christ. The book blends many seeming discrepancies to form a harmony of instruction and inspiration.
The Four Gospels have been read and studied for nearly 2,000 years. As early as the second century Irenaeus, Church father and martyr, declared that four accounts of the life of Christ were needed - no more and no less! Yet many Christians, in spite of the numerous and excellent commentaries available today, cannot answer the question, “Why four Gospels?” This in-depth volume, which took 20 years to research and 10 years to write, clearly reveals the necessity of a four-fold portrait of Christ. Selected excerpts from some of the most celebrated writers of the past, such as A. Edersheim, Chas. Erdman, F. W. Farrar, Edw. Gibbon, F. L. Godet, D. S. Gregory, F. W. Krummacher, H. H. Milman, G. Campbell Morgan, Arthur Pink, Sir Wm. Ramsay, Chas. Rollin, R. C. Trench, B. F. Westcott, and scores of others, are incorporated throughout the book in order to explain and substantiate the historical background and characteristic differences of the Four Gospels. This work is an excellent reference for teachers, students, and historians, but is designed for Christians in all walks of life. A homeschooling mother stated that the “work is quite readable (even by a pressured mom) and very worthwhile. I especially like the organization of the book, which helped me keep my bearings. The history is fascinating and helpful.”
"God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son." Hebrews 1:1. God has been speaking from the beginning. Creation itself is an expression of His thought, and all His providential government — where there are eyes to see — gives witness to His eternal power and Godhead, so that men are without excuse. In a special way, He has spoken through the prophetic ministry of His servants during the entire period covered by the Old Testament. These Old Testament Scriptures give us the record and manner of God's speaking in time past. The instruments He used were the prophets, but the Author is God. But there is a change in the Gospels — the Son Himself has come, and is speaking. "In these last days" — an expression significant of a change from His former methods of appealing to man, as well as a declaration that no further unfolding remains to be revealed — "He hath spoken unto us by His Son," or to be absolutely literal, "in a Son." This does not suggest that there are other sons, but gives the great fact of His Son standing out all alone. There is but One; no need even to designate Him in any exclusive way. The expression shows us that God's manner of communication has changed. It is not merely that we have inspired and authoritative messengers who declare unto us the will of God in many parts and in many ways — in details of biography, in historic events, in types, etc. but God Himself is present in the Son.
Anyone who reads the Gospels carefully will notice that there are differences in the manner in which they report the same events. These differences have led many conservative Christians to resort to harmonization efforts that are often quite strained, sometimes to the point of absurdity. Many people have concluded the Gospels are hopelessly contradictory and therefore historically unreliable as accounts of Jesus. The majority of New Testament scholars now hold that most if not all of the Gospels belong to the genre of Greco-Roman biography and that this genre permitted some flexibility in the way in which historical events were narrated. However, few scholars have undertaken a robust discussion of how this plays out in Gospel pericopes (self-contained passages). Why Are There Differences in the Gospels? provides a fresh approach to the question by examining the works of Plutarch, a Greek essayist who lived in the first and second centuries CE. Michael R. Licona discovers three-dozen pericopes narrated two or more times in Plutarch's Lives, identifies differences between the accounts, and analyzes these differences in light of compositional devices identified by classical scholars as commonly employed by ancient authors. The book then applies the same approach to nineteen pericopes that are narrated in two or more Gospels, demonstrating that the major differences found there likely result from the same compositional devices employed by Plutarch. Showing both the strained harmonizations and the hasty dismissals of the Gospels as reliable accounts to be misguided, Licona invites readers to approach them in light of their biographical genre and in that way to gain a clearer understanding of why they differ.
Compares the work of the evangelists to the development of biography in the Graeco-Roman world