Who Is Jesus? by Ellen Morgan

Rating: Needs Parent Supervision

Reading Level: Early Elementary, Mid-Late Elementary

This is such an important topic that my review is more detailed.

The author did a pretty good job telling about the life of Jesus, including how Jesus is the lamb who pays for our sins (see image below). The book acknowledged Jesus’s miracles and had no quibbles saying that he rose from the dead (yay!). Several parables are given as well.

Perhaps my biggest issue with this book is that Jesus is not positioned as being God. In Who Was Jesus, Jesus is portrayed as being the son of God and as pointing to God, both of which are true. But it doesn’t go far enough. This claim to be God is critically important and what distinguishes Him from all other religious leaders. See image below for an example of what I’m talking about about.

Other possible concerns: There are several statements I’m not sure are theologically correct. Some of them may be rather small quibbles, especially for an audience who has never heard of Jesus before.

• The title. “Who was Jesus?” ought instead to be, “Who is Jesus?”
• Jesus’ ethnicity is more Caucasian than I’d like; I think it is best if He is more ethnically ambiguous, which is admittedly hard to do in black/white illustrations.
• The book says Jesus “lost his temper” at the temple. I am not sure he “lost” his temper but rather was in control, and was righteously angry.
• Confusion about the claim of destroying the temple. The book conflates it with lies, and doesn’t clarify Jesus was talking about His body. (See image below.)

• Timing of the calm. In the story about Jesus walking on water and calling Peter out, the the sea should become calm when they got in the boat. But the timing is offered a bit differently:

• Missing role of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. (See image below.)

• Other religions’ views of Jesus. (See image below.) This is what I think most calls for parent discussion.

Bottom line: this book overall captures many aspects of Jesus’s life, ministry, death, and resurrection. Some theologically incorrect issues may vary in importance to some families. As for me, I think I am happy that children who aren’t raised in Christian homes can find this book at the public library and find out more about who Jesus was, at least as a starting point. I think they may be intrigued and try to learn more. However, I think it is important to remember that Jesus claimed to be God, and that changes everything.