Four Portraits, One Jesus

This laminated sheet accompanies Mark L. Strauss’s Four Portraits, One Jesus. Following the textbook’s structure, this quick-study tool offers summaries, important definitions, dates, and concepts designed to support the students’ learning experience and enhance their comprehension of what can be known from the Gospels about the central defining subject of Christianity, Jesus of Nazareth. Four Portraits, One Jesus is a thorough yet accessible introduction to the four biblical Gospels and their subject, the life and person of Jesus. Like different artists rendering the same subject using different styles and points of view, the Gospels paint four highly distinctive portraits of the same remarkable Jesus. With clarity and insight, Mark Strauss illuminates these four books, first addressing their nature, origin, methods for study, and historical, religious, and cultural backgrounds. He then moves on to closer study of each narrative and its contribution to our understanding of Jesus, investigating things such as plot, characters, and theme. Finally, he pulls it all together with a detailed examination of what the Gospels teach about Jesus’ ministry, message, death, and resurrection, with excursions into the quest for the historical Jesus and the historical reliability of the Gospels.