The Wisdom of Jesus: Meditations on the Gospels in Words and Paintings

by N.T. Wright

128 pages, Hardcover

Published August 25, 2026

About the author

N. T. Wright is the former Bishop of Durham in the Church of England (2003-2010) and one of the world's leading Bible scholars. He is now serving as the chair of New Testament and Early Christianity at the School of Divinity at the University of St. Andrews. He has been featured on ABC News, Dateline NBC, The Colbert Report, and Fresh Air, and he has taught New Testament studies at Cambridge, McGill, and Oxford universities. Wright is the award-winning author of Surprised by Hope, Simply Christian, The Last Word, The Challenge of Jesus, The Meaning of Jesus (coauthored with Marcus Borg), as well as the much heralded series Christian Origins and the Question of God.

He also publishes under Tom Wright.

Reviews

[Cindy]

This book caught my eye due to the cover art by one of my favorite artists, Jorge Cocco Santangelo. It consists of sayings of Jesus from the Gospels, followed by short essays by N.T. Wright, supplemented by artwork. The essays were good and I gained some new insights into the teachings of Jesus. The art was fantastic. Artists from all over the world represent the ideas of the stories in their own parts of the world, in their own artistic styles. I loved seeing faith-promoting image of Jesus Christ and his teachings from Africa, Asia, South America, etc. This was a short, devotional-type book that I definitely recommend.
Thanks to Netgalley for the Advance Readers Copy.

[Patricia N.]

The Wisdom of Jesus
Meditations on the Gospels in Words and Paintings
by N. T. Wright

Rating: 5 star rating

Stunning Art, Great Bible Scholar insights!

These types of books usually sit on a coffee table, but this one is worth reading. It is a 128-page hardcover book that has beautiful artwork as well . Instead of the usual old European museum paintings you always see, it has bright, colorful art of Jesus from global artists in places like Africa, Asia, and South America. It gives you a totally fresh look at these bible stories.
The best part for me was the writing by N. T. Wright. He is a huge Bible scholar, but he writes in a way that regular people can easily get it. He translates the Bible verses into plain, modern English. The book is broken into five specific areas, such as: True Wisdom, which looks at Jesus' famous parables, and True Happiness, which breaks down the Beatitudes. From there, it goes into practical advice with True Prayer and True Love, showing you how to actually talk to God and treat your neighbors right.
The whole thing leads up to the final section, True God, which focuses on the Easter story, the crucifixion, and the resurrection.

The book finishes by encouraging you to go out and use this advice to change the world around you. If you want a quick morning, read to think about, this would be a great choice.

Thank you, NetGalley, Zondervan Gift, and the author N. T. Wright for the book review consideration. All opinions are my own.

#NetGalley
#Zondervan Gift
#NTWright
#TheWisdomofJesus

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[Julia Shelburne]

This book offers insight into several Biblical parables and stories about Jesus in a devotional format. Each devotion contains a passage of verses, Wright’s commentary, and relevant art with a bit about each artist. While the eARC did not include the art beyond the citations, I searched each one and appreciate the diversity of the selection as well as how colorful the paintings are overall. This will be a beautiful physical book to gift someone (or yourself!). A few devotions especially stood out to me, like Jesus calming the storm, because of the rich context Wright provides.

Thank you Zondervan and NetGalley for the advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

[Lisa Beloved]

This is a great devotional! It combines art with Bible and the author puts it into practice with often unique point of view and deep wisdom.

Every evening I was looking forward to sitting down before lights out and reading the next little section.

Highly recommend!

PS: I received this book through NetGalley as an ARC

[Gea]

An inspirational book of meditations by N.T. Wright. The book is divided into five parts: True wisdom, True happiness, True love, True prayer and True God. Each entry within those headings includes a section of Scripture, artwork from a variety of international artists (not included in the eArC) and a meditation by the author.