The Gospels

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Not to be confused with the Gospel

The Gospels of the Bible (from the Greek for "good news") are the first four books of the New Testament, containing numerous quotes of Jesus. Three of the gospel accounts of Jesus are attributed to eyewitnesses: two by Apostles (Matthew and John), and another by the outsider Mark who witnesses events as a boy accompanying his mother who was a disciple. The fourth gospel account is attributed to a physician-historian who did not know Jesus personally but interviewed many about him (Gospel of Luke). The stated authorship of the Gospels is linguistically confirmed, and the authorship date of one or more Gospels was well before 64 A.D., because Paul used the testimony in his letters. The Gospels develop the mind-bending logic of infinity.

The Gospels are the single best way to overcome all types of addiction, which afflict everyone in some way.

The authenticity of the Gospels is brilliantly confirmed by how their four authors were ethnically different and socially opposed to each other, and yet independently verified each other's key facts. Two of the authors (Mark and John) could be considered outcasts, for different reasons, by most of the Apostles.

The four books of the Gospels have fascinating differences in perspective, and their optimal ordering is probably not their current one:

The first gospel chronologically was by Mark, probably a Gentile, who was fearless of authorities and irreverent towards all other than Jesus. Matthew then reused 97% of Mark's gospel,[1] omitting merely some of its boldness and irreverence, while adding more content. The Gospel of John was completely independent, and thus a corroboration of what is found in the other Gospels.

The Gospels were originally written in Greek, the common lingua franca (common or commercial language among diverse peoples) of the Roman Orient. No original Gospels have been found in Aramaic; the only known Aramaic Gospels are translations from Greek versions. None of the Gospels quotes from Hebrew Scriptures; only two out of four (Matthew and Luke) quote from Scriptures by using the Greek translation (the Septuagint). Some say that the Gospel according to Matthew was written particularly for Jews; the Gospel according to Mark was written particularly for Romans; the Gospel according to Luke was written particularly for Greeks; and the Gospel according to John was written for everyone. The different styles may simply reflect the different backgrounds and ethnicities of the authors.

Each Gospel reflects the perspective of its author. Matthew has economic parables; Mark has a simplistic, youthful style; Luke has the beauty of a historical writer; and John has philosophical truths.

Etymology

"Gospel" is derived from the Middle English word "godspel," in which "god" means "good" and "spel" means "news." Thus "Gospel" literally means "good news," and some denominations like to use the phrase "good news" because they feel it conveys the nature of the Gospel clearly. It is a translation of the Greek word εὐαγγέλιον (euangelion), which is also the root of the word "evangelist;" an evangelist is someone who spreads the good news. The "good news" here is, specifically, the news of Christ's redemption. The four Gospels offer different, yet complementary, accounts of the story of Jesus's life and teachings, and lay the foundation for the doctrine of Christ's redemption.

The relationship of the Gospels

Gospel Leaf, Ethiopia.

Although Matthew comes first in Biblical order, since the nineteenth century the Gospel of Mark is widely agreed to be the oldest of the Gospels (see Bible: The Gospels). However, this view has more recently been disputed.[2] The hypothesis of Marcan Priority holds that Matthew and Luke were probably compiled slightly later, drawing both from Mark, eyewitness accounts, and oral testimony. It is also possible that Matthew or Luke each used the other as a source as well, although which one would have come first is unknown. John is the last of the Gospels, the most theologically mature, and the strongest in its emphasis on God's loving sacrifice of his only son, Jesus, and how this sacrifice redeemed all mankind. The first three canonical Gospels are often called the "synoptic" (sighted with another) Gospels, as they tell slightly different versions of the same underlying story of Christ's life and ministry on earth.

Luke was said to have been a Greek physician (see Col 4:14) who accompanied Paul and also wrote the Acts of the Apostles describing the arrival of the Holy Spirit. Unlike the Gospels of Matthew and John, written as firsthand accounts, the Gospel of Luke records eyewitness accounts of others, much as a doctor asks a patient for his medical history and then writes it down in the medical file. Due to Luke's professional nature, his Gospel is very comprehensive about Jesus' life and resurrection, and it also conveys the great sense of joy that Jesus' family, friends, and followers felt.

Q

A longstanding theory is that a common source, called "Q", was used by Matthew, Mark, and Luke in their Gospels.[3] John appears entirely independent, more than 90% of his material is new and not found in the other Gospels.[3]

Another theory is that Mark was the source for the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, as Mark uses Jesus's native Aramaic and unpolished Greek while the other Gospels are more refined and translate the Aramaic sayings into Greek.

Non-canonical Gospels

In addition to the four Canonical gospels, other texts claiming to record the accounts of Jesus's earthly ministry have survived in part or in whole. Most notable among these is the Gospel of Thomas, which contains additional sayings and teachings. Recently, a Gospel of Judas surfaced, but this text is decidedly a later one, and its claim for any original authority is very slim. These Gospels are considered apocryphal by modern Christianity, and therefore not authoritative texts.

A number of other "gospels" were written sometime between the second and fourth centuries, most well after the dates when the disciples lived. They include the Gospel of the Ebionites, Gospel of the Hebrews, Gospel of Marcion, Gospel of Mary, Gospel of Peter, Gospel of Thomas, Infancy Gospel of Thomas, and the Infancy Gospel of James.[4]

Among fragments that still survive are the gospels according to the Hebrews (much prized by the early Jewish Church), according to the Egyptians, of the Ebionites, of Philip, of Matthias, of Peter, of Thomas (almost complete), of Nicodemus, of Bartholomew, of Pseudo-Melito, of Joseph of Arimathaea, of James, of Pseudo-Matthew, of Barnabas and a whole collection of infancy gospels.[5]

Teachings of Jesus

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The Teachings of Our Lord Jesus Christ are found in the four Gospels and other holy documents. The New Testament: Early Christian Writings.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Matthew adopted all but 304 of Mark's 11,025 words." New Testament Studies, published online by Cambridge University Press
  2. ↑ Eusebius relates the already-existing tradition in his day that Matthew wrote the first Gospel. In every manuscript of the New Testament, Matthew is always placed first, and for almost 1900 years the traditional view prevailed unchallenged that Matthew was the first Gospel written. This is called the Augustinian Hypothesis, which holds that Matthew was the first Gospel, written by Matthew the Evangelist. Mark, according to tradition a Roman, and a companion of Peter, was the author of the second Gospel, but beginning in the 19th century Heinrich Julius Holtzmann, together with other German scholars, abused the literary tools of historical-critical methods in opposition to Christian tradition, declared on their authority as German scholars that Mark's gospel was the first to be written down, about A.D. 50. This theory is called "Marcan priority", and it was aggressively spread as part of Bismarck's anti-Catholic 'Kulturkampf' policy. See Kulturkampf and the Gospel, by John Beaumont
    Church in History. The ChurchinHistory Information Centre. BISMARCK AND THE FOUR GOSPELS 1870 - 1914, by William R. Farmer (University of Dallas) Editor of A NEW CATHOLIC BIBLE COMMENTARY. The theory that Mark's Gospel was published before Matthew's is widely held in German and English-speaking countries. This article shows how this theory, with little supporting evidence, came to be spread as part of Bismarck's anti-Catholic 'Kulturkampf' policy. BIBLIOTHECA EPHEMERIDUM THEOLOGICARUM LOVANIENSIUM. THE FOUR GOSPELS. 1992 (churchinhistory.org).
    This view is widely held by liberal biblical scholars in German and English-speaking countries. In the United States acceptance of Marcan Priority has often been a test of the "academic competency" of those faculty members who teach Biblical Studies.
    See Mark's Gospel--Prior or Posterior?: A Reappraisal of the Phenomenon of Order, By David Neville
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 https://zondervanacademic.com/blog/synoptic-gospels
  4. ↑ Donald Harman Akenson, Surpassing Wonder: The Invention of the Bible and the Talmuds, 216.
  5. ↑ James. M.R, The Apocryphal New Testament (Clarendon, Oxford, 1924)

External links

The life of Jesus and the gospels (Timelines):

v • d • e
Books of the New Testament
The Gospel
History
Epistles
Prophecy
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