1. What are the gospels? Gospel comes from an old word that means "good news." The gospels are the first four books of the New Testament in the Bible - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The gospel accounts came from reports by Jesus' followers and by others who knew him. These accounts of Jesus' life were written not long after he died, while many people who witnessed the recorded events were still alive. The gospels were collected along with other writings of the early Christian church. We have more copies of the New Testament sources than of any other writings from that period in history. Later, others wrote about Jesus. Their writings became known as Gnostic gospels because the writers claimed secret, special knowledge ("gnosis") about God. The writings failed to gain acceptance. Some other Jewish and Roman writers also mention Jesus. Most serious scholars of today agree that Jesus really did live 2,000 years ago.		2. Why did you decide to compile the gospels into one account? All About Jesus makes it easy to read a complete account of the life and message of Jesus Christ. None of the four gospels alone gives a complete picture of Jesus' life. Each gospel writer chose to highlight different things. This book brings together all the details from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in one story.   3. Hasn't this been done before? The idea of weaving the four gospel accounts into one is not new. Technically this is known as a gospel harmony. The earliest known example is called the Diatessaron, compiled by Tatian around AD 170. Many similar books have been written since. All About Jesus, however, is the first to use the simplified language of the New International Reader's Version (NIrV) of the Bible. The NIrV is an easy-to-read version of the popular NIV and is ideal for people who are reading the Bible for the first time.   MORE FAQs