The Jesus Question (Discovering the Identity of Jesus in His First Biography)

Messiah? Madman? Teacher? “Who do you say that I am?” That’s the question Jesus asked his disciples and the question he still asks us today in a secular and skeptical age.

The Jesus Question is an invitation to join Jesus’s first disciples in the Gospel of Mark as they struggle to answer this question for themselves. This Gospel is Jesus’s first biography. It was written to reveal the reality of his person by enabling its readers to encounter him through the eyes of those who met him while he was on earth. Biblical scholar Gareth Cockerill shows us how the author of Mark has carefully arranged his material to achieve this purpose. Cockerill guides us on a journey of discovery as we join the people of Jesus’s first biography in pursuit of an answer to “the Jesus Question”: “Who do you say that I am?”

This book is designed to lead serious inquirers into a life of discipleship and to strengthen those who already believe. The author is convinced that Mark confronts us with the Jesus Question in order that we might become disciples who give wholehearted loyalty to Jesus as the divine/human Son of God.

The Jesus Question is for the honest inquirer about Jesus and for Christians who want to confirm and strengthen their faith. This book is ideal as a helpful resource for serious inquirers and also study groups:

• It begins by describing the vital importance of this question throughout history, in contemporary culture, and for each individual.
• It exposes its readers to Jesus by enabling them to join Jesus’s first followers.
• It concludes by making a strong case for the trustworthiness of Jesus’s first biography.

Though based on solid scholarship, The Jesus Question avoids technical terms so that anyone will benefit from reading it. Its effective approach to Jesus’s question makes it especially relevant as a supplement for courses on apologetics as well as for courses on the Gospel of Mark or on the life of Christ. Though this book is written for the general reader, scholars will benefit from examining Cockerill’s fresh approach to the structure of the Gospel of Mark.

Not only will this book help shape readers’ approach to Mark’s Gospel, but it will influence the way they read the other Gospels as well. Indeed, in this book, Gareth Cockerill has designed a model for how to read any of the Gospels with the goal of knowing Jesus better and enabling readers to answer for themselves Jesus’s question, “Who do you say that I am?”