The Gospels Interwoven

Intro - Table of Contents - Reviews - Order

Intro

The Gospel is a 237-page softcover book published by Victor Books, a division of Scripture Press, in 1987. It is a single-narrative (=composite) harmony of the four New Testament gospels in the words of the New International Version of the Holy Bible (NIV). It is therefore a chronological narrative of the life of Jesus interweaving every detail of the four gospels together yet eliminating repetition. The result is a condensation representing 75% of the four gospels. This compilation has been very carefully produced by rigorously adhering to "Ten Principles of Composition" drafted by the author. The chronological arrangement of events in the life of Jesus has not been achieved arbitrarily but determined by a sophisticated table that shows the majority view of each event by thirteen scholars who produced the most successful gospel harmonies in English over the past 325 years.

The Gospel was later translated into German, adapted and published by Hanssler-Verlag in paperback in 1992 under the title Das Leben Jesu. This book was republished by Hanssler with a different cover, and in hardcover, in 2000.

Over half of The Gospel was also included in a devotional book entitled 101 Days in the Gospels with Oswald Chambers (Victor Books, 1992). The Gospel was out-of-print in the late 1990s and is no longer available except by used book dealers.

The Gospels Interwoven is a 415-page hardcover book that was also published by Victor Books in 1987. This "Reference Edition" is a two-part book. The first part includes the entire single-narrative harmony in The Gospel as well as footnoted questions that identify apparent discrepancies when comparing especially the synoptic gospels (first three gospels). The reader is then directed to the "Harmonization Endnotes" in the second part of the book, in which answers are provided to these 132 questions (121 pp.) by appealing to distinguished New Testament scholars. The Gospels Interwoven also includes a defense of this type of gospel harmony, twenty-five maps of the journeys of Jesus appropriately placed in the gospel narrative, and other helpful aids.

The foreword in The Gospels Interwoven is by S. Lewis Johnson, Jr., former Professor of New Testament at Dallas Theological Seminary and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Chicago. This book also includes endorsements by Evangelist Billy Graham and Dick Halverson, former Chaplain to the United States Senate. Graham states that the book is "highly readable and understandable … will add a new and rich dimension to your appreciation of God's Word." Halverson claims that it is "a scholarly work … that deserves attention of not only the laity,… but of pastors and teachers as well."

Indeed, some college and university professors have used The Gospels Interwoven in teaching their courses on the New Testament gospels. In 1988, The Gospels Interwoven was awarded a Silver Angel award at the eleventh annual Religion and Media Angel Awards in Los Angeles, California.

By the late 1990s, The Gospels Interwoven also was out-of-print. In 2002, Wipf and Stock Publishers republished The Gospels Interwoven with a different cover in slick paperback and perfect binding. They do on-demand publishing, so that this book should continue to be in print.