The Four Witnesses: The Rebel, the Rabbi, the Chronicler, and the Mystic

Who Do You Say I Am? Four Witnesses Offer Strikingly Different Testimony to the Life and Death of JesusBringing the stories of Jesus to life for the contemporary reader, Robin Griffith-Jones revives the origional power and intent of each of the four gospels. He presents a lively discussion of how and why each gospel was written, considering the substance and style of the testimony itself as well as the unique context of each story. Mark’s gospel tells the rebel’s story of Jesus as a failed revolutionary whose mission mysteriously succeeds. For the rabbi Matthew, Jesus is the long-awaited fulfillment of Jewish expectation. For Luke, Jesus is a heroic, compassionate social revolutionary who confidently and mercifully dies on behalf of all humanity. John’s gospel is a mystic’s interpretation of the divinity of Jesus told in powerful poetic language.

Who do you say I am? Each gospel offers its own answer to Jesus’ question, influenced by the context of its writing and the personality of its writer. All four gospels taken together provide what one alone could not: a remarkably full and compelling presentation of Jesus and his message.