The book has been widely praised in the press.

The Los Angeles Times described it as: A courageous exploration of the contrasting …ways in which Jesus of Nazareth is depicted in the gospels ... The Four Witnesses remains lucid, urgent and persuasive even as its author blazes his own trail through the thickets of bible scholarship.

The Revd Prof. Peter J. Gomes, Harvard University, author of the best-selling The Good Book: The great mystery of the four gospels and the one Jesus is given a clarifying explanation and demonstration in this novel approach. The Four Witnesses may well recapture for a new millennium the excitement about Jesus which characterized the first millennium of Christian faith.

The Revd Daniel Berrigan, S.J.: The Four Witnesses offers a judicious, skilled and closely integrated analysis of the Christian gospels. The literary coloration of each gospel is dealt with in the light of the community and culture out of which it rose. The scholarship is impeccable, the style light of heart and hand. And the entire work is suffused in faith – the faith of those ministered to by the author, and (dare one venture it), the faith of the author himself. We are the richer for the holy hyphenation.

Krister Stendahl, former Bishop of Stockholm and Andrew W. Mellon Professor, emeritus, at Harvard Divinity School: We have four striking portraits of Jesus in the Christian Bible and Robin Griffith-Jones makes us bold enough to really look at one at a time and let it sink in. Actually, it is in where one picture differs from the others that artists tell us what they have seen as important for understanding. That way of reading the Gospels is both spiritually and intellectually refreshing.

Ron Hansen, author of Mariette in Ecstasy, Atticus, and Hitler’s Niece: In this lucid and engrossing book, Robin Griffith-Jones integrates the story of Jesus with the story of four very different first-century communities that would be fundamentally transformed by his life and teaching. Accessible, learned, and unfailingly interesting, The Four Witnesses is a wonderful introduction to the gospels and their setting.

And more personally:
The Revd Tom Wright, author of the best-selling The New Testament and the People of God and Jesus and the Victory of God, wrote to Robin in summer 2000: ‘I took your splendid book with me to the USA ten days ago… I wanted a kick-start for some fresh ideas, which you certainly gave me. It’s a remarkable achievement, if I may say so; quite apart from what you do with the gospels themselves (some of which I agree with, some not, but that’s neither here nor there) you manage to create a thoroughly credible historical setting for the whole of early Christianity – something few NT introductions achieve. The place of Paul in relation to it all, and your use of Revelation, was very, very satisfying and exciting. I know it’s an odd compliment to a book on the gospels to say I like what you do with Paul and Revelation, but you will see what I mean!’


Advance praise for The Gospel according to Paul just released

David G Burke, Dean Emeritus, NIDA Institute for Biblical Scholarship/American Bible Society: As with his creative and engaging The Four Witnesses delineating the distinctiveness of the New Testament gospels, Griffith-Jones has now produced a significant successor volume. In this new book he makes the case that Paul is hardly the alleged innovator of a new religion for Gentiles, but rather an apostle in the traditional sense who communicated and shared the good news of God’s actions in Jesus in the wider Gentile world. Griffith-Jones’s brilliant ability to set Paul and his letters within context is the key that will enable readers to gain great rewards.

Library Journal: Griffith-Jones considers Paul’s theological thought as an integral part of the primitive Church’s deepening understanding of the meaning of Jesus’s death and resurrection, with its concomitant influence on the early church’s proclamation of the Gospel. The final chapter shows how Paul’s broad eclectic intellectual formation made him uniquely able to preach the Gospel of Jesus. The meditative, devotional writing style is easy to read and obviously aimed at a wide general audience. Recommended for popular religion collections.

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Publisher + Publicity

The Four Witnesses is published by HarperSan Francisco.

For media inquiries and requests for author interviews, contact:

Roger Freet
HarperSanFrancisco
415.477.4414