The Gospels
What are the Gospels?
The word Gospel means "Good News."
There are four gospels that we find in the New Testament, which are:
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
The first three of these are usually referred to as the "synoptic gospels," because they look at things in a similar way, or they are similar in the way that they tell the story.
When Were the Gospels Written
A lot of criticism has been made of the gospels by people saying the the gospels were written hundreds of years after the crucifixion.
But John’s gospel, which was the last gospel, was written in about AD 90.
A fragment of a copy of John’s gospel has been found recently and dated somewhere between AD 90 and AD 120
This was a copy so the original must have been written before then.
His gospel was the last written so the others must have been before that.
Possibly between AD 50 and AD 70.
When suggesting to new Christians about the order in which the Gospels should be studied, then it is probably best to suggest Mark first followed by Luke and then Matthew with John being studied last.
Of course it is perfectly alright to dip in and out of different Gospels when you wish to learn about specific aspects of Jesus' Ministry.
It is likely that Mark's Gospel was the first written.
Who was Mark?
He was well educated and came from a wealthy family. They had big house in Jerusalem and possibly had servants.
Mark had dual Jewish and Roman citizenship so could move freely around the Roman Empire.
He was assistant to Barnabus then Paul then Peter.
He became an interpreter to Peter in Rome. At the time Peter could not speak Latin which was the language used in Rome. Mark would translate Peter's sermons into Latin.
The congregation in Rome asked Mark to record Peter's sermons because they were afraid that Peter would be arrested.
Because of this some people call Mark's Gospel the Gospel according to St Peter.
It is a very fast paced gospel with lots of stories about what Jesus did, the miracles etc.
Who was Luke?
Luke was one of the 40 different writers of the bible.
The difference with Luke was that he was not Jewish and all of the other writers as far as we know were Jewish.
Luke was probably born in Antioch in Syria which was the third biggest city in the Roman Empire with about 200,000 inhabitants.
He was a doctor who was known for keeping detailed accurate records.
Luke was a good friend of St Paul and travelled with him on his journeys providing medical care when needed.
All of Luke's gospel has been taken from eyewitness testimonies and was completed about 30 years after Jesus was crucified.
Luke also wrote the Book of Acts in the New Testament.
Who was Matthew?
The Apostle Matthew, also known as Saint Matthew and Levi, was one of the twelve disciples of Jesus Christ.
Matthew is traditionally regarded as the author of the Gospel of Matthew.
When Jesus called Matthew to follow him, he was a tax collector (or “publican”)—one of the most reviled professions in ancient Judaism.
Matthew’s gospel was the first gospel in the new testament but it was not the first book written.
Why then was Matthew the first Gospel in the new testament.
This was probably because it was written specifically for the Jews.
At that time the majority of Christians were Jewish
If you read Matthew you will not see any reference to God because Jews were fearful of using God’s name in case they were disrespectful
Matthew would use kingdom of heaven rather than refer to God.
In many parts of his gospel Matthew would make reference to the old testament which Jewish people could relate to and easily understand.
Who was John?
He was the cousin of Jesus.
Jesus’ mother Mary had a sister called Salome who was the mother of John.
He appeared to be the closest of all the disciples to Jesus.
John was a businessman and not only did he fish but he had a retail business which sold his fish afterwards.
He was the only one of the disciples who did not have a violent death.
John was the last surviving disciple.
His gospel was written in about AD 90.
John’s gospel mainly takes place in Judah whereas the other 3 gospels were centred in and around Galilee.
In the other gospels he is talking to crowds but in John’s gospel he has a lot of 1 to 1 meetings 27 in fact.
The Gospel of John only mentions 7 miracles of which 5 were new.