Three Gospels (1996, Hardcover)

Reynolds Price's "Three Gospels" offers an intriguing translation of the Gospels according to Mark and John, an account of the life of Jesus according to Price, and four detailed introductory essays in which he explains his purpose and method of development. Reading the texts afresh, in a new and relatively literal translation, provides interesting insights.

Price's reference point is literary: he sees the Gospels as stories that have exerted an unequaled challenge to the human mind. His translations are deliberately conservative. They stick closely to the original Greek and avoid paraphrase. Thus he writes that the Word in John "became flesh and tented among us"; to sin is to "go wrong"; to have faith is "to trust." Price's prose has a rugged, bare-bones quality, lacking either archaism or an affected use of modern idiom. He heightens the stark quality of his prose by a sparce use of punctuation, arguing that the ancient manuscripts have none at all.

Price's Gospel harmony makes use of the four canonical Gospels with additional information gleened from apocryphal sources, as well. In the essays preceding each section, Price tells the reader about the insights he draws from the Gospels and how he approaches them as literature. He displays a good working knowledge of Greek and a grasp of the complexities of New Testament scholarship, much of which, in his capacity as a seasoned literary critic, he finds absurdly agnostic. "Three Gospels" is a literate and spiritually stimulating read.