Book Review - The Greatest Words Ever Spoken by Steven K Scott

The opportunity to participate in another blog tour courtesy of Multnomah WaterBrook Press this time has me reviewing a book titled, "The Greatest Words Ever Spoken." Overall, this will be a useful resource, though the title and a few of the jacket recommendations (eg. "For the first time in 2000 years all the statements of Jesus are organized into practical, easy-to-find topics" and a quote from Chuck Norris "Incredible! This amazing book enables us to quickly find everything Jesus said about each important question, issue and problem we'll ever face...") over-hype the book a bit!

For all intents and purposes, this is a partial topical Bible... the reader can follow the book in a sequence of nine main topics (chapters) that include a number of sub-topics or one can use the table of contents at the beginning of the book or the index at the back of the book to look up a specific topic. It uses the New Internation Verson translation. Rather than presenting the whole Biblical teaching on the topic, this book simply presents the words of Jesus on the topic, beginning with the Gospel of John and then following the words of Jesus in the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark & Luke). A few non-Gospel words of Jesus are included from other NT books also.

Scott nicely includes a brief introduction to each chapter (main topic) and once in a while comments briefly at the start of a sub-section. Fortunately, the comments are quite uncontroversial - he does not try to get into theological discussions; he simply tries to introduce the topic and its importance. One wonders if a few summary comments would have also been appropriate at the end of each chapter, reviewing the key emphasis of Jesus words.

Also positively, Scott does a good job overall of including Jesus teaching on various topics that a "word search" would not necessarily include.

The major concern with the book is that each passage is included without (much) context and without interpretation. All of Jesus' words took place in a context, and a particular context within each Gospel. With no comment on either the context or some of the interpretive issues that could be significant due to the context, a novice student of the Bible could come into some confusion or misunderstanding. Since one of the audiences of this book is the not-yet-Christian seeker, it would seem significant to have some minor commentary in a few sections.

Another significant concern to me is the view of Scripture that such a book represents. In other words, if the words of Jesus are most important, what does this say about the inspiration and authority of the rest of Scripture. Jesus himself certainly viewed the Hebrew Scriptures as authoritative. Certainly Jesus is the Incarnate Word, yet the production of such a book seems to inadvertently minimize the importance of the rest of Scripture.

Overall, this could be a useful resource, but such accolades for a partial topical Bible seem a bit over the top.