The Word: A Harmonized Paraphrase of the Four Canonical Gospels

by James Jenkins

In this age of the thirty-second sound-bite, when saying the most with the least seems to be the name of the literary game, THE WORD offers an entirely new perspective on the life and teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ. It takes the four Biblical Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and melds them into a single work. Starting with Jesus' birth and proceeding through His life to His death, resurrection and ascension, THE WORD presents the Gospel as a singular chronological account, meant to supplement the Biblical Canon-not replace it. Unlike many other books of this kind, which simply feature passages from the King James or some other version arranged in accordance with a gospel harmony, THE WORD collates the text itself into an entirely new paraphrase created by its author. Words from each Gospel flow seamlessly into the others to create a single, integrated story of Jesus' life and teachings taken entirely from Scripture, with only repetitious material deleted, and nothing whatsoever added (save for a few clearly-marked words added to preserve clarity or aid in the flow of a passage). Each section of text is color-coded to indicate which book each word came from, and copious footnotes are provided throughout. One appendix offers four alternate endings to Mark's Gospel, while another offers information of what allegedly became of Peter, John, Mary Magdalene and others. THE WORD was not written by a Bible scholar, minister or even a college graduate, but rather by a simple preacher's son-turned atheist who once thought he was through with Jesus, only to learn that Jesus wasn't through with him! He does not claim any expertise in languages, theology or such; simply a desire to make Jesus' story more accessible to a culture in which even basic Biblical literacy is a thing of the past, and "short and sweet" seems to be the rule. If it helps readers better understand the One it calls "The Word," then the author has achieved his goal.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1497486602
• ISBN13: 9781497486607
• Release Date: March 2014
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 265 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 11.0" x 0.6" x 8.5"