His Life: A Complete Story in the Words of the Four Gospels

Strong, Sydney, 1860-1938Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.0

Word count: 331K words
Chapters: 34

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.His Life: A Complete Story in the Words of the Four Gospels by Barton et al.Author: Strong, Sydney, 1860-1938,Language: English, Class: BT: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Christianity: Doctrinal theology, God, Christology, Release Date: Jul 2, 2005

Editor's review

Compiled by Sydney Strong and others, this book weaves the text of the four Gospels into a single continuous narrative. It belongs to the category of Christian classics and doctrinal theology and is distributed free of charge by the Gutenberg Project. Its core value lies in presenting the Gospel content in an integrated way, so that readers can read through the overall arc of Jesus's life without having to cross-reference the four books. For religious studies, church reading groups, or personal devotion, this arrangement lowers the barrier to reading and makes it easier to grasp the main narrative line. As a public-domain e-book, it is light and easily accessible, suitable for segmented reading and annotation on electronic devices. However, this book is not a scholarly commentary: it provides no textual collation, historical background verification, or discussion of theological debates, and is therefore better suited to readers whose purpose is reading through and gaining familiarity. When reading, it is advisable to remain aware of differences among the Synoptic Gospels and, where necessary, to consult the original text of the individual Gospels.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General readers who wish to read the four Gospels' narrative in a continuous, connected way
Supplementary reading material for church reading groups or Bible study classes
Religious studies researchers interested in gaining familiarity with classic Christian texts
Believers who need a portable electronic edition for daily devotional reading

Not a good fit for

Professional biblical scholars who need textual collation and scholarly annotation
Readers expecting systematic theological argument or doctrinal analysis
Readers with no interest in religious texts who are looking only for literary stories

Reading tips

Read through in chapter order, first grasping the overall narrative framework and then analyzing details.
Keep a single Gospel at hand and compare the original text where passages are integrated.
Reading groups can divide the reading into sessions and discuss the editorial choices after each section.
For devotional reading, read a short passage each day, combining it with meditation and note-taking.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

What is the difference between this book and reading the four Gospels directly?

This book integrates the text of the four Gospels into a single continuous narrative, sparing readers the step of arranging and comparing them themselves and making it easier to read through the overall arc of Jesus's life. But integration inevitably involves selection and ordering, so it cannot fully replace reading the original text of the individual Gospels.

Does the book include annotations or theological explanation?

According to the source information, this book is a complete story compiled from the text of the four Gospels; it is a textual integration rather than a scholarly commentary. It typically does not include annotations by modern scholars, historical background verification, or theological argument, and readers who need deeper understanding must consult relevant scholarly works separately.

Will non-Christians gain anything from reading this book?

It can serve as a basic reader for understanding the classic Christian narrative. What the book presents is the Gospel text itself, not apologetics or preaching; readers interested in religious literature or Western cultural studies can use it as an introduction to the primary sources, but should note the absence of historical and scholarly background explanation.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Strong, Sydney, 1860-1938 Author · American · 1860–1938

Sydney Strong (1860–1938) was an American Congregational minister and social reformer who served for many years in cities of the American West. Public information about him is limited, and many details of his life are difficult to verify. Two of his works are held in this collection, both centered on classic Christian texts. His Life: A Complete Story in the Words of the Four Gospels weaves passages from the four Gospels into a continuous narrative of the life of Jesus, while His Last Week focuses on the Gospel accounts of the final week before the Crucifixion. Similar in subject, the two books are plain and concise in style, presenting the scriptural narrative in sequence rather than developing theological argument, and are suited to general readers and church use. His role as a social reformer and his years of service in western cities offer context for this writing for lay readers, though the specifics of his activities are no longer easy to trace.