Interpreting Jesus: Essays on the Gospels

by N.T. Wright

Draws together the most important articles on Jesus and the gospels by distinguished scholar and author N. T. Wright. Interpreting Jesus puts into one volume the development of Wright's thought on this subject over the last three decades. It collects the essays—written for a wide variety of publications—that led up to his groundbreaking book Jesus and the Victory of God , and it includes such wide-ranging themes as: Interpreting Jesus displays Wright's engaging prose, his courage to go where few have gone, and his joy to bridge the work of the academy and the church. Here is a rich feast for any serious student of the Bible, especially of the New Testament. Detailed, incisive, and exquisitely nuanced exegesis, this collection will reward you with a clearer, deeper, and more informed appreciation of the recent advances in Jesus studies, and their significance for theology today. Many of the included studies have never been published or were made available only in hard-to-find larger volumes and journals.

Genres: Biblical Studies, Christianity

368 pages, Hardcover

Published July 14, 2020

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

[Chris Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Among my favorite essays was an excellent takedown of the Jesus Seminar titled "Five Gospels and No Gospel". That essay alone makes this collection worth reading.

[Andy Gore · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a truly awesome collection of essays about the Gospels. Wright apologies that by necessity there will be repetition but this does not distract at all but instead drives home the points Wright makes that in ‘normal’ book would be tiresome. Read this. Read the Gospels. Live a life filled with Jesus.

[Daniel Supimpa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting collection of essays by N. T. Wright. As always, they are full of great questions, sometimes wordy responses, but also sharp humor and analogies.

[Thom Nixon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another refreshing survey of some of N.T Wright's great contributions to historical exegesis of the New Testament.

This particular offering provides a fresh look at some of the major themes of the gospels, and how the writers (and first readers) would have made sense and meaning out of Jesus's incarnation, death and resurrection. Of particular note are the points on Jesus as Lord of the Sabbath, and Lord of the Temple. Moreover, Wright's reframing of the old 'fully God and fully man' into 'both Israel's representative and the image of God as begotten by the Father' is urgent and crucial for the modern church today. Wright is able to discuss the Gospels in a way that tells a story, and in particular the story as he can best estimate the author's we're trying to say. For anyone who feels that much theology takes the life out of the 'good news', then this is for you. Fair warning, the book is relatively academic, and does require careful attention. Much of the content is excerpts from lectures he has given, or paper responses to quasi scholarship on Jesus (see the first few chapters on the Jesus seminar). Wright delivers a dense, yet ultimately rewarding collection of essays that will challenge how one has read Jesus, and beg the reader to go deeper into who Jesus really thought he was, and how he embodied that. As each chapter/essay is essentially free standing, the book can be consumed at the readers preferred pace.

Finally, it is clear that the 'New perspective on Paul' is well (perhaps over 1500 years) overdue. One hopes and prays that as it develops and moves from scholarship to the academy, and then pulpit, Christians will begin to recapture the story of God and the new life that He invites everyone too.

[Douglas Biggs · Rating 3 out of 5]

1. I’m not sure I’m smart enough to understand everything that Wright writes about and

2. It was a series of essays that were Kissel collected. Some were great, some seemed like academics arguing semantics which probably relates back to point #1.