A close reading of the Gospels reveals discrepancies in the way they recount the same events, prompting some conservative Christians to force harmonization, often to absurd lengths. Others have concluded that the Gospels are irreconcilably contradictory and therefore unreliable as historical accounts of Jesus. However, most New Testament scholars now agree that the Gospels belong to the genre of Greco-Roman biography, which allowed for flexibility in narrating historical events. Yet, few have delved into the implications of this genre on Gospel passages. Michael R. Licona's Why Are There Differences in the Gospels? offers a novel approach by examining the works of Plutarch, a Greek essayist from the 1st and 2nd centuries CE. Licona identifies thirty-six passages narrated multiple times in Plutarch's Lives, analyzes the differences between them, and contextualizes these differences within the compositional devices commonly used by ancient authors. He then applies this approach to nineteen Gospel passages, demonstrating that the significant differences between them are likely due to the same compositional devices employed by Plutarch. By exposing the flaws in both forced harmonization and hasty dismissal, Licona invites readers to reconsider the Gospels in light of their biographical genre, gaining a clearer understanding of their differences in the process.