Records of the Life of Jesus Book I: The Record of Mt-Mk-Lk/Book II : The Record of John/2 Books in 1

by Henry Burton Sharman

Book by Henry Burton Sharman

239 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1917

About the author

1865-1953

Reviews

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

Search by ISBN. I have been participating in a study group using this text, and ordered a copy for myself. The Sharman text is a fantastic way to study the gospels, but note the barcode if you want your book to match others in your group. As a scanned reprint from 1917, the translation used in the paperback (ISBN 1933993545) appears to be the Revised Version of 1881, as contrasted with a hardcover version using the Revised Standard Version (ISBN 9780917479120). In short, this means the paperback uses a lot of "thee" and "thou" and older English sentence structure. Page numbers are close, but sometimes a paragraph will be on the previous page. Not a dealbreaker for group study, but something to consider when purchasing. The other thing to note is the size. The paperback is a good deal smaller, so it is more compact on the page.

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent main resource for a group study. Note ISBN, as some versions are a scan of the 1917 original, and others are an updated printing. This one, ISBN 9780917479120, is the updated printing and utilizes the Revised Standard Version, whereas the paperback reprint of the scanned original (ISBN 1933993545) utilizes the Revised Version of 1881. This updated printing has larger pages, so the text is easier to read, with more white space for notes. It's more of a reference size (larger) than the paperback reprint.

[Michael Canoeist · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book prints the three synoptic gospels side by side on each page to make it easy to compare what each gospel writer said about each incident in the story of Jesus's life. Mark and Luke are in sequence -- there are some spatial gaps where one or the other does not have a particular episode. Matthew only had to be cut up in sequence (indicated clearly) so as to fit into the direct comparisons. There are also valuable footnotes from editor Sharman (whose life is an interesting story in its own right) on translations, and on the references in the texts to other Biblical citations. This is the best way I know of to get a handle on the details of particular stories -- and the different facts or emphases that the individual writers present. I used this book for three years in a group reading project, where it stimulated tremendous discussion on many points and their larger meanings. It helped to have various readers providing their thoughts -- but the comparative structure would still be useful to the individual reader doing this solo. Following the synoptic gospels, the book also provides the Gospel of John, as it does not fit the comparative framework well. But Sharman gives references alongside John's text to similar or related material in the synoptics, making those comparisons possible too.

[Lynn Bingaman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a wonderful side -by-side comparison of the Gospels. It was so interesting to me to see what was left out or included in each Gospel and to wonder why. This is a reference book which I am sure I will use again and again.