An Introduction to the Gospels

Here is a good introductory work on the subject of the new testament gospel writings of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. This book provides a healthy and well rounded beginners survey of the gospel material. Gives background information such as dates, authors, intent, historical-setting, message, origins, literary sytles, etc. Also goes through each gospel account section by section highlighting the main themes and flow of the material. The book finishes with a survey of extra-canonical "gospel" material, along with canonization issues, and historical Jesus studies survey. This work seems to linger somewhere between moderate to semi-conservative on most issues treated, and comes across as being fair, and careful to avoid extreme positions. Again, this is an introductory work of a survey type, so one should not expect exhaustive detail, but for an intro level work on the subject, it's pretty good. For larger and more detailed works on these subjects two excellent books treating Jesus/gospel studies are: Craig Blomberg's Jesus and The Gospels and also Lee Martin McDonald's Early Christianity and It's Sacred Literature.

Reddish begins with a discussion of the formation of the Gospels, a discussion which must inevitably deal with the Synoptic Problem and John's relationship to the Synoptics. From there he goes on to explore the world of the Evangelists, and then he presents a chapter on each Gospel. The individual Gospel chapters discuss the social settings and major themes of the Gospels, and give both an outline and a reading guide to the Gospels.After dealing with the Canonical Gospels, Reddish considers the apocryphal/pseudepigraphical gospels, giving a description of each and discussing its relationship, if any, to the canonical Gospels. Finally, Reddish turns to the Quest for the Historical Jesus, setting out and discussing in detail the scholarly criteria for determining historicity of the various Gospel accounts.This slender volume has more breadth than depth, but it claims to be no more than an introduction to Gospel study. It serves that purpose well.

This book has it all--it reviews the history of the Gospels, explains each canonical gospel verse by verse, and even summarizes the "other" gospels, including the Q source. It is easy to read and enjoyable, not at all dry like a lot of biblical commentaries. Highly recommend!