The Life and Teachings of Jesus: According to the Earliest Records
Overview
The vividness and consistency of the portrait of Jesus furnished here—in what are recognized as the oldest records in the gospels—demonstrate that this is eyewitness testimony indeed. Through the witnesses’ eyes, we look upon the divine Friend and Teacher of men. As we listen to his words as the witnesses recorded them, we are captivated anew by their irresistible truth. Jesus is surely destined again to draw to himself—as he did in the days of his flesh—the busy men of affairs, who are “bound to the wheel of things” or blinded by ignorance or prejudice, for he has for each of them a plain, practical message that means freedom and happiness and the fullness of life. Contents include:
- Introduction
- The Records of the Life and Teachings of Jesus
- The Early Life and the Work of Jesus
- Jesus’ Fundamental Teachings
- The Culminating Events of Jesus’ Life
The preceding volumes in the series have all dealt with the Old Testament, and the author has met with a growing appreciation on the part of thoughtful men and women of the practical results that have come from the application of modern historical and literary methods to the study of the Scriptures. In the present volume he has sought to embody in a single narrative the oldest records contained in the four Gospels, so arranged as to give a simple, logical, and, as far as possible, a chronological view of the life and teachings of Jesus.
—The American Review
In the first place, the first five chapters of the books are devoted to a most illuminating survey of the sources of our knowledge of Jesus, and done by one whose scholarship is famous for both scope and accuracy. The chapter on ‘The Written Sources Underlying the Gospels’ should be read by everyone who ever has to teach the New Testament. In the second place, not only is the story of Jesus’ life told here, and his ethical and religious teachings examined, but the attitude of Jesus toward his own mission and toward miracles and toward the second coming receive the most illuminating discussion from the most recent points of view.
—Yale Divinity Quarterly
He presents a condensed study of the records of the life and teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, those outside the Gospels as well as those within, and a good deal that may be known about the sources and comparative value of the Gospels themselves. We have never seen this part of the work excelled in a handbook for classes, such as this is. The deeper Christian experience is enriched and pleased with the emphasis and clearness that attends the presentation of the death of Jesus as the culminating event of His life.
—Record of Christian Life
Charles Foster Kent (1867–1925) was born in Palmyra, New York, and educated at Yale, Yale Divinity School, and the University of Berlin. After working as an instructor at the University of Chicago and a professor of biblical literature and history at Brown University, he became Woolsey Professor of Biblical Literature at Yale University in 1901. He was a prolific author and editor, and his works include The Wise Men of Ancient Israel and Their Proverbs, Origin and Permanent Value of the Old Testament, Israel’s Laws and Legal Precedents, and Israel’s Historical and Biographical Narratives.