Customer Reviews

Jesus and the Gospels

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Blomberg's work is an absolute delight. After years of teaching courses on Jesus and the Gospels, he committed himself to write out word for word everything he wanted his students to know. The result of working through this book (complete with review questions at the end of every chapter) is that you can essentially have Blomberg as your teacher for $22 (minus the tuition, parking, and grade!).

The work is divided up in 5 sections: Historical Background for Studying the Gospels; Critical Methods for Studying the Gospels; Introduction to the Four Gospels; A Survey of the Life of Christ; and Historical and Theological Syntheses.

Blomberg works through the critical issues methodically. The eye for detail, the insightful exegesis, and the delightful prose all make this work hard to surpass as an introduction and survey. It truly is a "one-stop" shopping textbook. I expect to turn to it repeatedly throughout the years for the incredible amount of information packed into its 400 pp. In many senses it serves to function as an ultra-condensed commentary in certain parts.

Blomberg seems to be rare in the scholary field as his work has not alone a commitment to excellence in scholarship, but also a passion to communicate the gospel today. He often points out reasonable application that the text might offer us. He seems as if he is able to worship as he writes and teaches. May his tribe increase!

One improvement could have been further discussion and explanation of geographical pointers and significance. Blomberg treats the topic in just a couple of pages and then continues on.

All in all, this is an excellent volume, and deserves a wide readership.

I bought this book as a textbook for a Life of Christ Class and found it to be an excellent resource. It gives more than you ever wanted to know on a broad range of subjects. An excellent book but not an easy read.

this is a very sane and sober comprehensive dig into a wealth of issues surrounding Jesus studies and the four gospels of the new testament. A tremendous amount of issues are put on the table and you will truly learn alot from this book. Well researched, careful scholarship and a well read author who is indeed conservative, but not a fundamentalist. The only quibble I have with this work is that I wish it dealt a bit more with the greco-roman milieu of miralcles, myths and mystery religions. These subjects are included in this book to be sure, but I think more material would have been helpful. This is only a minor quibble though, after all, one volume can only pack so much into it. I also think that on a few rare occasions His conservative bent may get the better of him, but again, I would say this is rare. It is a bit of a tedious read in some ways, but this is to be expected from a work that is not designed to be a fun narrative story. This is not a devotional read, but rather this work seeks to educate readers on the historical issues of Jesus studies as well as the gospels along with the meaning and understanding thereof. This is sorely needed as too much "bible teaching" today is less than grounded in careful sanity. For a very accurate study of Jesus issues with sanity, don't miss this one! Also see N.T. Wright's, The Original Jesus, and Peter Walker's little book by Intervarsity Press, Jesus in His World. These are top notch intro level books helping one to understand Jesus according to His historical and cultural context.

As a former conservative, I find Craig Blomberg stands out among evangelical biblical scholars for his integrity, his reasoned approach and his scholarly engagement with critical issues.

Jesus and the Gospels is a comprehensive work that introduces readers to the background of the four gospels, including historical details, social setting and the process of composition, for example. Blomberg makes use of a wide range of critical sources, including recent Jesus scholarship and social-scientific criticism. Conclusions are generally conservative, but highly nuanced.

This is certainly recommended as a source of insight into Jesus' life and times. It is pitched roughly at undergraduate standard. Personally, I have found it a valuable reference tool in my career as a teacher of Religious Education.

Blomberg is a heavy-duty, serious Biblical scholar. This study of the gospels is packed with information suitable for both students and readers of the New Testament. Packed with detailed notes and scholarly insight. This isn't a breezy commentary, so look elsewhere if that's your bag. This is serious scholarship, although not so serious that a general reader won't enjoy it. A great book on the subject by one of the best of today's thinkers.

This book is packed with information that anyone wanting to do a thorough study on the life of Christ or the four canonical Gospels should not be ignorant of. It can be read through or just used as a reference book, whatever helps you most.

There is a map of "Israel in the First Century" on page 56. It is important to review this if your geography is as poor as mine, especially when reading through part four - "A Survey of the Life of Christ". Perhaps the usefulness of this book could have been increased if the inside covers were used for maps.

Though very readable this book is still very academic in tone. Immediately before or straight after this book I would personally recommend you read a good book that really reminds you of the glory of Christ, his finished work on the Cross and his spectacular resurrection (in fact I would recommend anything in the "puritan paperbacks" series). Let's not be fence sitters! Let's not be undecided! Let's not be sterile! The central subject of Blomberg's book is a true wonder - how can we contain ourselves!?

Blomberg, as gentlemanly as he himself is, appears to have a disdain for "fundamentalist" types (and what I'm saying here is more anecdotal than anything else - apologies). He and others of his stature seem to think of fundamentalists as having their heads in the sand and/or lacking erudition. Myself, as a self-confessed fundamentalist Christian, would encourage my fellow fundamentalists to be well informed, well read and ready "to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints" (Jude 3), not being discouraged by criticism from academics.

To say that this book is "Better than Edersheim's Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah" is a rather obvious point. Alfred Edersheim wrote in the late 1800's. Times have changed, much research has taken place, and publishing standards have forced greater "user-friendliness".

Whether you just have a few questions about the gospels, or whether you are a serious student, this book deserves to be in your library. Blomberg gives thorough overview of all the different aspects of bible study, including the political, religious and socioeconmic background of the gospels, and all the various modern theories and arguments about the gospels, their dates and authors.

And this is simply great: at the end of each chapter he lists the best books on the subject, and he lists them for the novice, intermediate, or advanced students. For each theory about the gospels that Blomberg discusses, he presents the best argument for the theory, say Q, and then gives the weaknesses of the theory. A terrific resource.

Blomberg is a traditional believer, yet this book is very fair to all sides.

I must say that I really love this book. This is one of those books that you know you are going to keep always in your library, a book that will help you whether you decide to become a minister a teacher or whatnot. You will, years from now, find yourself coming back to this book again and again because it is just that good. I am going through, well, finishing up, my first half of studying the New Testament at the seminary I am going to. Blomberg's book has truly helped me see and understand the concepts and the considerations and the structures and the messages behind the Gospels (which is primarily what I am studying in the first half of NT study). Yes this book is rather academic, it isn't the kind of book that you would just sit down on a Summer's afternoon to read. Instead, this book helps you to fully appreciate the Gospels, and more to the point, appreciate our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and all that He did and still does in the world. Blomberg's book helps you to realize that the Gospels are living works of writing, that they speak volumes of love, mystery, grace, and yes even judgment toward those of us who dare to see the truth, the way, and the life. Blomberg isn't perfect, and you probably wont agree with each and every detail that he speaks of, which is understandable, but still, you will indeed learn a lot about the NT and the Gospels found therein. I suggest that if you are truly interested in learning about the New Testament and that you have the time and the patience to study fully all that there is to know about the New Testament (and not just some garbage that you might find from the liberal left like the Jesus Seminar and people like John Spong), you really need to begin with this book on the Gospels. Yes be prayerful as you study, but have this book (and the sequel to this book, From Pentecost to Patmos) by your side. You wont be sorry, it will truly help you in your journey with Christ Jesus!

As a previous reviewer has noted, this volume is a tour de force of biblical knowledge, a virtual seminary course about Jesus in one volume. Yet it is easy to read, always interesting, and thought provoking. The early chapters cover the historical, social, cultural, and political backgrounds of the New Testament era. Blomberg does a great job painting a picture of what life would have been like in 1st century Israel. Then he has a discussion about how the gospels were composed and when they might have been written. He then gives a succinct summary of the events narrated in the four gospels, concluding with a nice essay onm the historical credibility of the passion narratives.

This book does for the Christian community what Alfred Edersheim's Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah did for the Christian community over a hundred years ago, except to say that Blomberg's book is much easier to read. I highly recommend it.

Blomberg's "Jesus and the Gospels" is no light reading. It is comprehensive and academic, though very accessible and understandable. Blomberg seemingly lays out everything a person could want to know about the four gospel accounts of the life of Jesus. He manages to maintain a strictly evangelical voice throughout, yet his points are intellectually-sound and smoothly articulate and should be helpful to many outside evangelicalism.

Again, the strength of Blomberg's work is its exhaustive nature. Some of the most instructive parts of the book are the historical and political background that he provides. This stuff sets the stage for the gospels to make sense, and evangelicals are certainly guilty of misinterpreting much of Scripture due to a simple misunderstanding (or even ignoring) of context.

Though this work is academic, it is also pastoral. Honestly, the final chapter, in which he summarizes the nature of who Jesus really was and considered Himself to be, is worth the price of the book by itself. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to more fully understand the life of Jesus and is willing to do a little bit of mental work to read, think, and learn.