Köstenberger, Andreas J. Introducing Jesus: The Fourfold Gospel. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Kregel Academic, 2026. 248 pp. Pb. $19.99 Link to Kregel Academic
Andreas Köstenberger is well known for his work on the Gospel of John, including A Theology of John’s Gospel and Letters (Zondervan, 2009) and his new two-volume commentary in the Evangelical Exegetical Commentary series (Logos, 2026). He served as the editor of the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society for twenty-two years. This new book is an introductory textbook on Jesus and the Gospels, condensing his Jesus of the Gospels: An Introduction (Kregel, 2020).
Köstenberger aims to provide an accessible textbook for high school and college students, as well as interested laypeople. His five main goals have not changed (p. 19-20), nor have his theological assumptions. But since this book is a primer on the Gospels, Introducing Jesus omits many technical details from his larger book. For example, although this book mentions a few key names for historical Jesus studies, the larger textbook has much more detail on the history of interpretation. The original text has many richly detailed footnotes; this primer has none. But this is not a problem since the target audience of the two books is quite different. Do college students ever look at footnotes? Köstenberger rarely addresses Synoptic parallels, and he does not cover source, form, or redaction criticism. But given the goals of Introducing Jesus, these critical methods are not important.
After an introductory chapter, Köstenberger covers each of the four gospels in four chapters (except for Mark, which receives only two chapters). There is no discussion of authorship or origins of the gospels, although there is a brief one- or two-page introduction before each new unit of the book that introduces the author, the distinctive contributions of each gospel, and some major emphases. Köstenberger then provides a running commentary for each gospel. In terms of depth, his comments are more than one might encounter in a good study Bible. He is brief and to the point (again, something that will appeal to students, even if that frustrates professors). Chapters begin with a chart outlining the section of the gospel under consideration, and occasional charts appear throughout the book. For example, one chart summarizes Jesus’s resurrection appearances (p. 196-97). Each chapter ends with a few discussion questions and a short devotional reading based on the chapter’s content.
Köstenberger provides some teaching resources on his website, Biblical Foundations, including discussion questions, quizzes, exams (with a key for teachers), devotional reflections, and visual charts. The discussion questions match those at the end of each chapter in the book. The same applies to the devotional reflections. Under visual charts, there is a single-page PDF outlining each gospel. Each chapter includes a short, objective five-question quiz, but the four unit exams contain three essay questions each (and the final has two open-ended questions). I noticed that anyone could download the answer key. Perhaps changing this file to a password-protected PDF is a good idea.
Conclusion. Köstenberger’s Introducing Jesus certainly achieves its goal of condensing his larger, more academic textbook for use in lower-level classrooms. In this, the book is similar to Mark Strauss’s Introducing Jesus (Zondervan 2018), which condenses his Four Portraits, One Jesus (Second edition, Zondervan, 2020). By providing a brief running commentary for each gospel, Köstenberger’s book will be a valuable resource for laypeople working their way through the first four books of the New Testament.
NB: Thanks to Kregel for kindly providing me with a review copy of this book. This did not influence my thoughts regarding the work.