What the Gospels Meant

November 12, 2007
Wills’s follow-up to his bestselling works, What Jesus Meant
and What Paul Meant
, sheds new light on the four books of the Bible best known to most Christians. In taking the gospels apart, Wills helps readers see the oft-read stories from the life of Christ in a new way. As a former teacher of ancient and New Testament Greek, he provides his own translations of the texts, accompanied by incisive analysis that incorporates the work of other scholars. Although some Christians remain uncomfortable with the use of biblical scholarship to expand upon Christianity’s scriptures, Wills is obviously convinced of its value and holds that it need not weaken one’s faith. In his epilogue, for instance, he notes how scholar Raymond Brown, whom he quotes extensively, remained a devout believer even as he plumbed the depths of biblical scholarship. Wills explains that the gospels “are not historically true as that term would be understood today,” adding that they were composed several decades after Christ’s resurrection and are the culmination of an oral preaching process. Rather than historical accounts, he considers them to be a form of prayer: a “meditation on the meaning of Jesus in the light of Sacred History as recorded in the Sacred Writings.” Readers willing to have their impressions about these texts challenged by an erudite scholar will find this to be fascinating and worthwhile reading.

January 15, 2008
"New York Times" best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize winner Wills (history, emeritus, Northwestern Univ.; "What Jesus Meant") provides another splendid book for the educated general public. Here, he analyzes the four Gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John, insisting that the church deliberately "gives us four different takes on the central mystery" of Christ, which remains inexhaustible. He observes that Mark emphasizes Jesus's role as sufferer; Matthew systematically presents his teachings; Luke stresses the healing aspects of his mission; and John keeps always in mind his divinity. Wills also explains the parallelism between biblical Jewish and Christian Scripture and the use of symbolic language in the Gospels to reveal the meaning of biblical events, e.g., God's theophany to Moses in Exodus 33 and the Resurrected Christ's theophany to two disciples in Emmaus. Wills dedicates his book to the memory of the great 20th-century biblical scholar Raymond Brown, on whose work he relies extensively. Highly recommended for public, seminary, and undergraduate academic libraries. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 10/15/07.]Carolyn M. Craft, formerly with Longwood Univ., Farmville, VA

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2007
Wills completes a trilogy begun in What Jesus Meant (2006) and continued in What Paul Meant (2006) with an examination of the four canonical lives of Jesus that aims not at harmonizing them but at accounting for their differences. As in the previous volumes, Wills probes the language of the documents, clarifying the meanings of key words, and marries that linguistic investigation to recently garnered historical knowledge. Mark wrote to validate an early Christianity enduring persecution; Matthew, for an established community (probably late-first-century Antioch) concerned with spreading the word and needing a book of essential teachings; Luke, for the sake of reconciling Gentile and Jewish Christians; and John, to theologize the burgeoning religion. When they are regarded as created for specific purposes, squabbles over supposed contradictions among them evanesce. Wills generously acknowledges his great indebtedness to the late Raymond Brown, arguably the greatest twentieth-century New Testament scholar writing in English, and he sublimely concludes by suggesting the best way to read the Gospels: with the intelligence God gave us to help us find him.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)