Open the Bible: The Gospels

Historian and teacher Christopher Gornold-Smith ably guides viewers through a survey of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in The Gospels, part of the Open the Bible series. Gornold-Smith begins each of the four discussions with background information on the writer and a description of the characteristics and structure of the particular work, before launching into a well-organized review of the content, illustrated with dramatic re-enactments and location footage of various places in the Holy Land, ending his analysis with an invitation to read the Gospel and accept Jesus as a personal savior. Despite presenting a lot of valuable content, The Gospels suffers from intrusive music and background noise during crowd scenes, which overwhelm Gornold-Smith's voice to the extent that some key points cannot be heard. These production flaws in an otherwise fine program make this a strong optional purchase. Aud: P. (J. Reed)