The Four Gospels: an overview

January 9: An Overview of the Four Gospels, taught by Jon Draskovic

There was one Jesus. Why do we have four different gospels?

- there were four different writers

- different perspectives

- different communities written to

Timeline

Jesus was born in about 6 BC and by 100 AD all of scripture has been written.

6 to 4 BC Jesus Christ born

33 AD Jesus died, resurrected, ascended

(soon after) Paul converted on Road to Damascus

40 to 60 Paul’s missionary journeys; Paul’s letters written

65-68 AD Probably when Mark’s gospel written

70 Destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem

100 All of scripture has been written

Matthew, Mark, and Luke are the three “synoptic gospels” – all three have mostly the same materials. Scholars think there was another source, called “Q”, which doesn’t exist any more (there are agreements between Matthew and Luke that aren’t in Mark).

The Gospel of John has 73% different content than the other 3 gospels. John’s community was probably had more time to think about the theology concerning Jesus.

Note that the gospel writers were interpreting the history of Jesus’ life and resurrection for their particular community: some things that would have been obvious to that community remain unstated.

Why not combine the four into one? In the year 170 an early Christian created one gospel out of the four. What do we think of that effort?

- an attractive idea.

- in fact, that is what the church does – the church fathers meld the stories into one because it’s more teachable, even though there are conflicts and paradoxes in the different accounts (example, during Advent, the Christmas stories from Mt and Luke are melded together).

- we should keep the different accounts because we keep each writer’s unique perspective.

- having four gospels respects the complexity of being human.

Are there conflicts between the gospels? Yes. For example:

- John vs Luke – did Jesus pre-exist his birth?

- Matt and Luke: genealogies are different.

- John vs. synoptic gospels: the timing of Passover/Passion events are different.

There are differences between the gospel accounts which we can’t reconcile.

There are also agreements between the gospels:

Matthew, Mark, Luke all have the same story (the “Triple Tradition”)

“Double tradition – same story in Mt and Luke, or in Mark & Mt.

Sometimes we see the same teaching in different settings, e.g. Matthew’s “Sermon on the Mount” vs Luke’s “Sermon on the Plain”

Underlying all this is our belief that God (through the Holy Spirit) inspired these writings.

Specifics on the Gospel of Mark

- the first gospel (the shortest, with fewer stories told in greater length).

- uses elementary grammatical constructs.

- written in “Koine Greek”, the language of ordinary citizens.

- focus on Jesus’ limitations of power, Jesus’ fear of the cross adds credibility.

- he was possibly writing to the Christian community at Rome.

- Mark’s community was probably being persecuted. See Mark 8:34-35. And 10:29-30.