THE WRITING OF THE GOSPELS

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According to long-established practice, the first four books of the New Testament are known as Gospels. This is probably because they record the gospel, or good news, of the coming of Jesus Christ, the world’s Saviour.

Each of the four Gospel writers had a special purpose in writing his book, and he selected and used his material accordingly. Each gave his own emphasis to teachings and events taken from the life of Jesus, according to the plan and purpose of his book. The writers wrote for different people, who lived in various countries and came from different racial and religious backgrounds. Yet there is no disagreement in the picture of Jesus Christ that the four writers present: he is divine and human, Lord of all and the Saviour of people everywhere (Matt 11:27-30; Mark 2:10,28; Luke 2:11,29-32; John 5:20-25).

The Gospels are not biographies of Jesus, and make no attempt to give a detailed or chronological account of Jesus’ life. Nevertheless, they give all the facts that people need to know in order to believe in Jesus as the Son of God and so have life through him (John 20:31).

The stories of events leading to, including, and immediately following Jesus’ birth are given at some length. Nothing more is written about his childhood until he was twelve years old, and even then only one incident is recorded. But that incident is enough to show that even at such an early age Jesus knew he had a special relation with God, for he was God’s Son (Luke 2:49; cf. 1:35).

Nothing more is recorded in the Bible of the next eighteen years (approximately) of Jesus’ life. Then, when about thirty years old, he began his public ministry (Luke 3:23), and this lasted about three and a half years. Much of his work was done in Galilee, the northern part of Palestine, though he met his fiercest opposition in Judea in the south, particularly in Jerusalem, the centre of Jewish religious power. The religious leaders considered that Jesus was guilty of blasphemy in claiming to be the Son of God, and they were constantly looking for an opportunity to kill him. Jesus, however, continued to carry out his ministry openly, knowing that he would be arrested and killed only when he had finished his ministry and the time appointed by his Father had come (Luke 13:31-33; John 8:20; 13:1; 17:1,4).

Jesus’ last week in Jerusalem was full of tension and activity, and is recorded in greater detail than any other part of his life. He entered Jerusalem as Israel’s Messiah-king, cleansed the temple, debated with hostile Jewish opponents, gave teaching to his disciples on many subjects, then allowed himself to be arrested, cruelly treated, falsely condemned and crucified. Then follows an account of his burial, resurrection, and activity after his resurrection. Finally, he returned to his Father with the promise that one day he would come again (Luke 24:50-51; Acts 1:9-11).

Extent of Jesus’ ministry

If we had only the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, we might think that the public ministry of Jesus lasted barely a year and that he spent almost the whole of that time in the north. John’s Gospel records more of his work in the south, particularly in and around Jerusalem. It also provides information that shows clearly that the ministry of Jesus lasted several years.

John mentions three specific Passover Feasts (John 2:13; 6:1,4; 13:1) and possibly a fourth (John 5:1. It is widely assumed that the unnamed feast mentioned here was the Passover). Because the Passover Feast was held only once a year, the record of four Passovers would indicate that the public ministry of Jesus must have covered at least three years.

The broad divisions of Jesus’ ministry are set out in the following table. We should bear in mind, however, that we cannot with certainty assign every portion of the Gospel accounts to a particular time or place in Jesus’ life.

Re-telling the story of Jesus

Soon after Jesus’ ascension, his disciples began the task of spreading the good news of the salvation he had brought. They started in Jerusalem and several thousand were converted (Acts 1:8; 2:41,47; 4:5; 5:14; 6:7). From Jerusalem the gospel spread to neighbouring provinces, then to countries beyond, till Christianity was firmly established in western Asia and eastern Europe (Acts 8:5,40, 11:19-20; 13:4,14; 16:11-12; 18:1; 28:13-15). This growth took place over a period of about thirty years (the AD 30s to the 60s).

Those who became Christians were taught the stories that recounted the activity and teaching of Jesus. This emphasis on the life of Jesus was one reason why apostles had to be personal associates who had been with Jesus from his baptism to his ascension. They could give first-hand accounts of what he said and did, and in particular could give eye-witness testimony to his resurrection (Acts 1:21-22; 3:15; 5:32; 10:36-41). The apostles carefully instructed new believers, who memorized the stories and sayings of Jesus and went out to spread the good news to others. New converts were taught similarly, and they too went out to teach and make disciples of others (Matt 28:18-20; Acts 2:42; 8:4; 2 Tim 2:2).

As the years passed and the church grew, those who had seen and heard Jesus became fewer in number and more widely scattered. In order to preserve what these witnesses taught about Jesus, people began to prepare written accounts of things Jesus said and did (Luke 1:1). In this sort of activity we can see the origins of the four Gospels, the first of which was probably written about AD 60, and the last about AD 90. Although we do not know all the details concerning how or when each book was written, we can find enough evidence in the books themselves and in other first century writings to make the following explanation a possibility.

Two related accounts

It seems that Mark’s Gospel was the first to be written. Mark had assisted the apostle Peter in missionary work that took them through the north of Asia Minor and brought them eventually to Rome (cf. 1 Peter 1:1; 5:13). When Peter left to go on further journeys, Mark remained for a while in Rome. The Roman Christians asked Mark to write down the story of Jesus as they had heard it from Peter, with the result that he wrote the book that we know as Mark’s Gospel. Mark was still in Rome when Paul arrived as a prisoner, accompanied by Luke and Aristarchus (Acts 27:2; 28:16). In letters Paul wrote from Rome at this time, he mentions that Mark, Luke and Aristarchus were all with him, and they surely would have got to know each other well (Col. 4:10,14; Philem 24).

Over the years Luke also had been preparing an account of the life of Jesus. No doubt he did much research during the two years he had recently spent with Paul in Palestine (Acts 24:27). Others had already written accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry (Luke 1:1), and Luke gathered material from these as well as from people still living in Palestine who had seen and heard Jesus. When he arrived in Rome and met Mark, he took some of Mark’s material to add to his own and so bring his book to completion.

Whereas Mark wrote for a group of Christians, Luke wrote for someone who was probably not a Christian. This person, Theophilus, appears to have been a government official of some importance, and Luke’s purpose was to give him a trustworthy account of the origins of Christianity (Luke 1:1-4). Luke’s account was so long that it was divided into two books. The first, which covers events from the birth of Jesus to his ascension, we know as Luke’s Gospel. The second, which covers events from Jesus’ ascension to Paul’s arrival in Rome, we know as the Acts of the Apostles (cf. Acts 1:1-2).

A third related account

The Gospel of Matthew appears to have been written about ten years after the Gospels of Mark and Luke. Matthew’s concern was to produce an account of Jesus’ ministry that was especially suited to the needs of Christians of Jewish background. His book shows a particular interest in the fulfilment of God’s purposes concerning Israel’s Messiah, and the responsibility of the Messiah’s people to spread his message to the Gentiles. According to early records, the Jewish Christians for whom Matthew wrote were those of Syria and Palestine.

By this time Mark’s Gospel had become more widely known, and because it represented Peter’s account of Jesus’ ministry, it was well respected. Matthew therefore saved himself a lot of work by using much of Mark’s material in his own book. (About 90% of Mark is found in Matthew.) There is also a lot of material common to Matthew and Luke that is not found in Mark. This material, commonly referred to as Q, probably came from one or more of the many writings in use at the time (cf. Luke 1:1). This common material Q consists mainly of sayings and teachings of Jesus, in contrast to stories about him.

Because of the parallels between Matthew, Mark and Luke, the three books are often referred to as the Synoptic Gospels (meaning Gospels that ‘see from the same viewpoint’, in contrast to the Gospel of John). Each of the Synoptic Gospels, however, has material of its own that has no parallel in the other Gospels. In Mark this amount is less than 5%, in Matthew about 28%, and in Luke about 45%.

A different kind of book

John’s Gospel is different in form and style from the other three Gospels. The book was written probably within the last decade or so of the first century, by which time the other three Gospels were widely known. Although John follows the same general development of the story from Jesus’ baptism to his resurrection, his purpose was not to produce another narrative account of Jesus’ ministry. He selected only a few stories of Jesus, but recorded at length the teaching that arose out of them. He wanted to instruct people in basic Christian truth concerning who Jesus was and what this meant for the people of the world.

The reason John wrote his Gospel was that in the region where he lived (probably Ephesus, in western Asia Minor), people were confused because of the activity of false teachers. Some of these denied that Jesus was fully divine, others that he was fully human. John opposed these teachers (cf. 1 John 2:18-23,26; 4:1-3), but his chief reason for writing was not negative. He had a positive purpose, and that was to lead people to see Jesus as the Son of God and so to find true life through him (John 20:30-31).

Much of John’s Gospel therefore consists of teaching, but most of this teaching comes from the recorded words of Jesus himself. In comparison with the Synoptic Gospels, action stories are few. More than 90% of the material in John’s Gospel is not found in the other Gospels.

INTRODUCTION TO MATTHEW