What Really Are the Gospels?
Uncharted details about the biographies of Jesus.
Overview:
- What is a Gospel?
- Why are there four?
- When were they written?
- The Synoptic Gospels (Mark, Matthew, & Luke) and source theories.
- Why John’s Gospel is different.
- Why were the Gospels written?
For many Christians, the gospels are the part of the Bible they’re most familiar with. Even if you’ve never read them all the way through, the stories are embedded in our culture.
- Prodigal Son
- Lord’s Prayer
- Golden Rule
- Three Wise Men — you know, who showed up bearing gifts the night Jesus was born.
Scratch that last one.
Not only do we tend to have a very limited scope of the Gospel stories, but we’ve also added, altered, and misconstrued a lot of what they say, what they mean, and what they’re supposed to be.
What is a Gospel?
The word “gospel” (a contraction of the Old English “god-spell) is from the Greek word euangelion, which means “good news”.
All of the gospels are in the genre of biography, but biography back in the 1st century was not the same as we would expect.
There was much less concern with factual details or chronology of the person’s life. Instead, it would be more a telling of that person’s virtues, special circumstances to their birth or life, and would have a bit of a tone of a morality play, where the life of that person would be held up as an example to live by.
The Making of the Four Gospels
There were many gospels circulating in the time following Jesus’ death, none of which were written directly by him (in fact, we have no writing from Jesus at all; unless you count that time Jesus wrote in the dust).
It was around the 4th century when the four gospels most of us recognize now — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John — were designated the ‘official’ gospels, but even this was not quite as clear as we would like.
- Irenaeus in the 3rd century mentions “Four Gospels”.
- Athanasius in the 4th century implies the agreed-upon existence of 27 books (including the Gospels and the other components of what we now call the New Testament).
But it wasn’t technically until the Council of Trent in the 16th century that also of this became formally official.
Despite the technicalities, our current four gospels have been long understood as the gospels for quite some time.
They were written mainly in Greek because, by the 1st century, most people in that region where Jesus lived spoke Greek.
Despite the names attached to them by tradition, the gospels were written anonymously.
They were attributed to the disciples of Jesus or their companions — or, even, associates of the apostle Paul — in order to give them more authority (what is called the “apostolic tradition” was a pretty big deal in early Christianity’s history). This was a common practice at the time, to ascribe the name of someone famous or important on literature so as to increase its validity.
When Were the Gospels Written?
We often assume that because they come first in the order of books in the New Testament, the gospels were written first. This is not so. The letters Paul wrote to his congregations are the oldest.
- Mark — The first gospel chronologically was written down sometime around 65–70CE. An important time reference is that Mark appears to have been created before the destruction of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem.
- Matthew & Luke — both seem to have been around following the destruction of Jerusalem. Therefore, they could be as early as 70CE, but most scholars give a later date. 1st century is still presumed.
- John — The last gospel (both chronologically and traditionally), was completed around 90–100CE (some even propose it was later than that).
As you can see, there is quite a span of time between the life and death of Jesus and the writing of the gospels.
What Are the Synoptic Gospels?
If you read the gospels carefully, you’ll notice both some word-for-word similarities and yet some quite divergent versions of the stories and the timeline, especially in the first three, Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
These are called the synoptic gospels because they have an apparent literary interdependence.
The Synoptic Problem — Why Are They Similar, Yet Different?
The reason for this interdependence has been a matter of lively debate among scholars for hundreds of years. Today, most agree that Mark is the oldest and that the authors of Matthew and Luke used Mark as a source to write from. The problem is, as follow:
- Mark is terse and immediate and does not share content that Matthew and Luke both share (suggesting Matthew and Luke used another source and Mark may have been written before Matthew and Luke).
- Matthew shares material with Mark.
- Luke shares material with Mark.
- Matthew and Luke have some material that is exactly the same and found in Mark.
- Matthew and Luke have some material that is exactly the same and not found in Mark.
- Matthew has unique material.
- Luke has unique material.
There are many theories that suggest there were sources — usually two or three; occasionally more than that — but most scholars conclude that Mark and another source which we don’t have a copy of, called Q (for quelle, which is the German for ‘source’) are the sources that the gospel writers drew from.
This explains why the synoptic gospels have so much similarity, yet aren’t the exact same.
The author of Luke explicitly says in his introduction that he got his material from earlier stories told and written about Jesus. Luke also seemed to have a source that the others didn’t; scholars call this the Lukan source. Some of the stories told in Luke are unique from Mark and Matthew. Likewise, Matthew seems to have sources unique to that author.
What’s Different About the Gospel of John?
It seems that the gospel of John was written independently from the other gospels.
- There is a much different tone and purpose (often compared to the Gnostic community; which comes with its own interpretive issues).
- The form the gospel takes is less narrative and more discourse.
- There is no explicitly shared material with the other gospels.
- Jesus is much more ‘cosmic’ and universal.
The most notable difference from the other gospels, however, is the timeline of Jesus’ execution, which seems intentionally set to be on the day of Preparation for the Passover. This is not the same day in the synoptic gospels, and scholars say it was to make the point that Jesus was the Passover lamb.
Why Were the Gospels Written?
More ink has flowed about this itinerant teacher and executed revolutionary than any other human on earth. He had a forceful influence on those who knew him and were taught by him.
This impact did not end with his death. As his message grew, his disciples needed to wrestle with who he was. Prophet? Messiah? Son of God? People started to be persecuted and martyred over their ideas about this man, and controversies arose over his teachings and personhood.
While there is no conclusive reason as to why the Gospels were written, a likely scenario is that:
- Oral narratives, explanations, and teachings continued by the earliest followers.
- These portrayals reflected the specific apostles and communities that were passing on what it meant to follow Jesus.
- As churches spread, the oral traditions spread with them.
This is why, to some degree, the notion of apostolic tradition became so important — with a growing variety of traditions, being able to trace the narrative or teaching back to the original apostles gave it validity.
Further, because there was no initial agreement to write down one cohesive version in anticipation of expansion, later leaders and communities had to work backward to create cohesion.
Finally, as diversity continued and persecution began, creating agreement on particular issues was important. The gospels are their best answers to such questions about Jesus’ identity, what his mission was about, and the nature of his divinity and humanity.
Overall, there are 3 main reasons that the people wrote down the gospels:
- To capture oral tradition — especially since people thought that the Kingdom of God would be finished soon, once that didn’t happen, they looked to preserve the narratives.
- To share the tradition with new communities.
- To create cohesive frameworks amongst a growing and diverse tradition.
Read more about the early church’s process here:
The questions around this identity are complex and, because of that, not only are the gospels also complex and diverse, but so is the process of how the gospels came to be.
This is important to keep in mind when reading them.
And might help explain why only one gospel mentions wise men (or magi) and why there were way more than three and it was way after Jesus was born — at least, according to Matthew.
This overview of the gospels is by necessity a mere glance at fascinating and layered writings about Jesus. There are many books, some quite scholarly, some more accessible, that I find helpful. I included a short list of some that I refer to often, if you wish to pursue a deeper study.
Good Books About the Gospels (And the New Testament As Well)
- The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, by Bart Ehrman; Oxford Press, 4th edition.
- An Introduction to the New Testament, by Raymond Brown; Anchor Bible Reference Library, Doubleday Publishing Group, 1997
- A Marginal Jew, Rethinking the Historical Jesus, vol. I II & III, by John Meier; Anchor Bible Reference Library, Doubleday Publishing Group, 2001
- The Complete Gospels, edited by Robert J. Miller; Polebridge Press, 1992
