Who Is This Man Jesus?

by Kenneth N. Taylor

Vintage paperback

228 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Throughout his publishing career, Dr. Kenneth Nathaniel Taylor's dream was for all peoples of the world to read and understand God's Word and experience its power at work in their lives. From his earliest children's books to his generous support of Christian ministry, this vision was (and still is) reflected in his work. Ken Taylor, founder of Tyndale House Publishers, died in June 2005 at the age of 88. Early in his publishing career in the 1950s as director of Moody Press, Dr. Taylor wrote several children's books. Born out of experience with his own ten children, "Stories for the Children's Hour," "The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes," and others are now being enjoyed by a third generation of children. "My First Bible in Pictures" was included in "Publishers Weekly"'s list of "All-Time Best-Selling Children's Books" in 2001. His love for children (including his 28 grandchildren and 35 great-grandchildren) continues to inspire new titles. In fact, it was his children, in their confusion over the meaning of the King James Version, who prompted his mission to make the Bible understandable for everyone. Dr. Taylor's "Living Letters," a thought-for-thought translation of the New Testament Epistles, was published by the newly formed Tyndale House Publishers in 1962. The complete "Living Bible" followed in 1971 and has now sold over 40 million copies in its many editions. In 1996 Tyndale House introduced the "Holy Bible," New Living Translation. In keeping with Dr. Taylor's vision of Scriptures that everyone can read, the New Living Translation is a thought-for-thought translation that is exegetically accurate and idiomatically authoritative. Ninety of today's leading Bible scholars worked with Tyndale House to develop this easy-to-understand translation. Tyndale has become one of the top evangelical publishers in America and today publishes books, several Bible lines, periodicals, and videos. During the past 40 years, Tyndale House has distributed over 100 million Bibles, New Testaments, and Bible portions worldwide. Dr. Taylor used the success of "The Living Bible" to further his mission by distributing all its royalties to Christian ministries worldwide. He founded Living Bibles International (which merged in 1992 with the International Bible Society) for translating, publishing, and distributing modern-language versions of the Bible around the world. His life of service has been recognized with at least 30 honors and awards from different organizations, including four honorary doctorates. In October 2000, Dr. and Mrs. (Margaret) Taylor were awarded the Distinguished Service to Family Award by Wheaton College. A graduate of Wheaton College, with graduate studies at Dallas Theological Seminary and Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, Dr. Taylor held 15 directorships with Christian organizations at home and abroad.

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Hey Ray, do you believe in God?" -- Winston Zeddemore

"Never met him." -- Ray Stantz

"Well, I do. And I love Jesus' style." -- Winston Zeddemore, grinning

-- dialogue from the film Ghostbusters (1984)

Culled directly from combining / merging the four Gospels of the New Testament, The Man Jesus (the original name of this paperback; a subsequent edition years later boasted the more informative title listed above) is meant to present a straightforward account of Christ's life. As such, there are known gaps in the biography - not much was recorded between His celebrated birth up to age 12, and then there is big jump to when He was 30 years old - and then He sets forth on a journey of teaching, good deeds and performing miracles in those final three years. It's written in a modern (that is, mid-1960's) standard dialect for easy comprehension, but it's a little dated and flat at times in execution. It is sometimes difficult with the printed word to present Christ's charisma - just an educated guess, but since He often preached to the multitudes I intuit that He had to possess a unique or captivating presence and speaking style - and I imagine better books of a similar nature are now available.

[Welles Bristol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Humanizes the Jesus story without dumbing it down.

[May Ling]

A pretty good recounting of the gospels told in the modern vernacular. To the extent that other texts are less accessible, this one told in paragraph story form might be easier for a person to digest, regardless of religious belief. It is still essentially a story about man, his desire to be good and his conflict of being able to do so.