--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 1 number: 2 published: 1897-12 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Our Work: The Best Books on the Life of Jesus," *Improvement Era* 1, no. 2 (December 1897): 135–136.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera12unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera12unse start_page: 135 end_page: 136 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1897-12) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera12unse publication_year: 1897 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1897, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Our Work: The Best Books on the Life of Jesus OUR WORK, THE BEST BOOKS ON THE LIFE OF JESUS. We have been asked the question several times of late, ' 'What are the best books on the Life of Jesus?" Our answer invariably has been, the four gospels of the New Testament, the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. There was, of course, no other answer to give. For while the literature on Christology is very voluminous, there is little of it that we could wholly recommend to the members of the Improvement Associations outside of the books named above. Of these books the first, the Gospel according to St. Matthew, was written by an eye-witness of the things he relates. Both Mark and Luke speak of him as Levi, the former as the son of Alphaeus (Mark 2: 14), a publican, that is, a tax-gatherer of Capernaum, who collected the Roman duty on goods crossing the Sea of Tiberias. He was called early in the Galilean ministry of our Lord, to be one of the Twelve Apostles, and from that time forward enjoyed that close companionship accorded to the Twelve, a circumstance which made him one of the best possible witnesses of those things which Jesus said and did. Matthew's gospel is most probably the first treatise written on the life of our Lord, the date of it being about twentyeight years after the crucifixion; or, according to Irenaeus, who wrote in the second century, when Peter and Paul were founding the church at Rome, which, from the best evidence obtainable, was about the year sixty-one or two, A. D. It was written in Hebrew as currently written and spoken at the time in Palestine, and afterwards was translated into the Greek, some conjecture by Matthew himself. Mark's gospel was written not by an immediate witness of the incidents he relates, but by one closely associated with one, at least, who was such a witness — Peter, whose companion Mark was. He was also, for a time, the companion of Paul, for the weight of evidence is in favor of his being that John Mark, who at Perga left Paul and Barnabas when they were on their first mission; and about whom Paul and Barnabas had such sharp contention when ready to start on their second mission (Acts 15: 36-40). Mark is called the interpreter of Peter, that is, he wrote down in narrative form what he had heard Peter relate of what Jesus said and did. It is also claimed that Peter approved of what Mark had written, and directed that it should be read in 136 IMPR O VEMENT ERA . the churches (Eusebius H. E. ii: 15). So that while Mark did not write from personal knowledge of the things which Jesus did, he was but one step removed from that condition, and it is, to say the least, very probable that what he wrote was sanctioned by the one most prominent of those who con" sorted with our Lord. The third gospel, that which bears the name of Luke, the general consent of all ancient Christendom ascribes to "the beloved physician," the friend and companion of the Apostle Paul, mentioned in the epistle to the Colossians (Col. 4: 14); and in the second letter to Timothy (II Tim. 4: n). He is also the writer of the Acts of the Apostles, and is generally conceded to be the close companion of Paul in his missionary journeys described in the Acts. Epiphanius and others say that he was one of the "seventy" disciples; and some insist because of the circumstantial manner in which the appearance of Jesus to two of the disciples on their way to Emmaus is related, that Luke was one of them. It has been charged that Luke wrote his gospel under the overpowering influence of Paul; but beyond question he writes from a wider range of knowledge than was imparted to him through his association with the great apostle of the Gentiles. He is evidently more scholarly than either Mark or Matthew, and has written more truly in the spirit of a historian. These three books are called the Synoptic Gospels, chiefly for the reason that they relate a summary of the principal events in the life of the Master, and very much in the same way; and partly because writers stood in need of a descriptive term that would point out the difference between these three writers and John, who may be said to have emphasized what Jesus taught rather than what he did. Christian tradition has it that such had been the growth of heresies which denied the divinity of Christ, that the bishops of the east urged upon John the necessity of writing his gospel, and writing it with a view of refuting the heresies to which reference is made above. It is further claimed that he had before him the other three gospels, and that things omitted by their authors he supplied in his own memoir; and for this reason his gospel has come to be regarded as supplemental to the others, and of particular interest because it bears especial witness to the divinity of Jesus. The writings of John, moreover, are of special interest to Latter-day Saints since from the Book of Mormon (I Nephi, ch. 14) they learn that he was foreordained to write of the things concerning Jesus Christ and his ministry. We have thought it proper to say so much concerning the authors of these memoirs of Jesus, that the members of the associations may be reminded of the fact that they had the very best opportunity for knowing the truth of the things whereof they wrote — opportunities possessed by no others who have written upon the subject. Other writers, who have not marred the subject, have but amplified and unified what these have recorded; but many others have entered upon the most unprofitable speculations that have confused rather than thrown light upon the subject, and the