Book Review: Jesus the One and Only

Title: Jesus the One and Only

Author: Beth Moore

Publisher: B&H

Date: 2002

ISBN: 0-8054-2489-X

Length: 340 pages

Quote: “I really struggled with the overwhelming task of writing a book on the life of Christ…others far brighter and more knowledgeable already filled the shelves of libraries.”

Which accounts for what I find not to like about this book.

On the whole I do like it. It’s another of the detailed, cross-referenced, word-studied Bible commentaries for which Moore is known. I learned a few new words from it and so very likely will you.

But…so many words, on a topic that as the author admits is bigger than one book, and Moore found space for speculation about people’s complexion and clothing styles while leaving out most of Jesus’s actual recorded words? Yes. She did. Because so many other commentaries are full of comments on His words. And Moore’s audience and publishers wanted her books to sound “feminine.” Any time you want to sound more “feminine,” you just comment in detail on clothes. That Bible characters’ bones, not to mention their clothes, are all dust by now need not interfere with Moore’s happily reporting research into what historians think people probably wore. And the typical physical looks they had, and the typical hairstyles.

The result makes reading this book a bit like eating a sandwich made with bread sliced an inch thick and just a teaspoon of peanut butter. If the book had been 680 pages long, the lingering on the shadows of Jesus’ early life at home would not have crowded out a proportionate amount of attention to His adult career, but in 340 pages it sort of does.

So that’s what’s not to like, and then on the other side of the ledger we have solid research, flawless prose, and an effervescent enthusiasm for the material.

There are a few passages that may stretch the tolerance of some Christian readers. How literally we’re meant to take the Bible’s descriptions of “the devil” and “the demons” has been a point of disagreement for a long time. Some traditions emphasize that the Bible often very clearly identifies its “devils” as sins and/or diseases, while their counterparts the “angels” are, as the word literally meant, messages (or messengers). Moore writes from within a tradition that imagines both angels and devils as literally existing, in some sense of the word. In the United States we don’t formally identify churches as High and Low, but we all understand the concept; Moore’s tradition is a little further on the Low side than mine, perhaps than yours. Taking “angels” and “devils” literally is almost always Low Church. Some Christians won’t read a Christian document that contains phrases from a tradition other than their own. I do. I remind myself that even though Christians have disagreed strongly and seriously about important matters, most of our differences are still different ways of talking about the same thing.

Some things readers will learn, or re-learn, by reading this book:

. Beth Moore loves Jesus.

. In Bible days, being “espoused” or “betrothed” was legally the same as being married except that couples weren’t living together yet. Waiting proved chastity; life was short; teenagers were classified as adults, and parents typically arranged betrothals when their children were thirteen or fourteen.

. Scripture is the most powerful tool in our fight against temptation.

. When “all spoke well of” Jesus after his comments on the book of Isaiah, he said, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country.” Sometimes words that seem flattering, only in the wrong way, wound people to the heart. “You are a great speaker” generally means “…but I wasn’t paying attention to what you actually said.”

. The Bible tells us that God esteems people who practice humility.

. A woman whose name is carefully omitted from the record, who may have been one of the New Testament characters generally described as the great saints, or may have merely tried to emulate what she had heard that one of them did, was described by a word translated as “a heinous and habitual sinner.” Allowing her to wash His feet, Jesus was accused of having no idea “what dirt” this wretched woman was. Jesus said that her sins were forgiven.

. In addition to twelve men and an unspecified number of women disciples who travelled in His entourage, Jesus commissioned seventy-two other disciples who travelled on their own, teaching, healing, and preparing people to meet Jesus and His entourage. Unlike modern churches that find it most profitable except when it’s dangerous to hire a single individual and put that individual on the road, Jesus sent His disciples out ana duo, which literally means “by twos,” or “two by two” or “two and two” or “in pairs.”

(I used to attend a church that sent college students out to sell books and tracts in summer. How I wanted to do that, and so did a school friend I liked and admired. Because I had neither a car nor a driver’s license, and my friend had been supplied with both because she had a disability, it seemed obvious to both of us that we’d have to work as a team. After all, studies showed that door-to-door sales, fundraising, or even polling are most efficiently done by teams of two women; many people are intimidated when approached by an unknown man, and many don’t want to get into a conversation with one unknown woman, but two women tend to be invited into houses! But no. The church’s policy was to send students out by ones, so there was no question about which one had earned a commission on a sale. Two little girls never got the summer or the scholarship of their dreams, and one of them really needed that scholarship! How many times I’ve wished that that church had followed Christ’s example. Whatever kind of ministry people are sent out on, they should be sent out by twos!)

. Those distracted by service…miss how much Jesus cares. Martha came to Christ and asked, “Lord, don’t you care?”

. “His father saw him and was filled with compassion for him” (verse 20). The Greek word for “compassion” in this verse means “to feel deeply or viscerally, to yearn.” The father of the Prodigal Son yearned for that stupid kid to come home! He ran to meet his son.

. Jesus miraculously healed a lot of begging lepers. (Those fellows really needed security. They travelled by tens.) When told to go and show themselves to the priest and be certified “clean” and fit to go home, nine of them ran straight into town as fast as they could go. Only one looked back to thank Jesus. Jesus said mildly, “Where are the nine?” Moore wonders whether this extra-polite leper was “the one with the most spots.”

(A good rabbi was expected to use wit, jokes, and sarcasm as teaching tools. Jesus certainly did this. Moore recognizes “Where are the nine?” as “the punch line,” and so it undoubtedly was...and still, as a good commentator, Moore can't resist capping it.)

As shown by these examples, Jesus the One and Only does contain some studies of Jesus’s adult career, from which readers and their churches may be blessed with insights. (I still wish there had been more of these, but there are more than I’ve listed here.) If you are looking for a good commentary on the Book of Luke, some others may be more thorough, but this one, organized into 53 short chapters, will be easy and pleasant to read, alone or with a class.