THE
II. THE GOSPELS
Charles P.
Poole, Jr.
1. Introductory Remarks
2. Synoptic Gospel Story
3. Gospel According to Matthew
4. Gospel According to Mark
5. Gospel According to Luke
6. Gospel According to John
7. Relationships between the Four Gospels.
8. Canons of Eusebius
9. Q-Source
1. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
The
Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John provide four accounts of the life of
Our Lord Jesus Christ. Three of these
accounts, namely those of Matthew, Mark and Luke, are very similar to each
other, and are called Synoptic Gospels.
The fourth account by John differs considerably from the other
three. The setting of the Synoptic
Gospels for Jesus’ public life is north in
In
the next section we will summarize the recounts of the Synoptic Gospels about
the life of Jesus, and then we will say something about each of the four
Gospels in turn. After this we will
discuss how the various Synoptic Gospels and that attributed to John are
related to each other.
Each
evangelist has a symbol, namely: Matthew - a winged man, Mark - a winged lion,
Luke - a winged ox, and John - an eagle (with wings, of course). The prophet
Ezekiel [
2. SYNOPTIC GOSPEL STORY
Both Matthew and Luke begin their Gospels
with infancy narratives which complement each other since they relate different
occasions of Jesus’ infancy and early childhood. Then all three synoptics
tell the story of the public life of Jesus in
A. Infancy.
Matthew (Mt) begins with the genealogy of
Jesus from Abraham to Joseph, and
Luke (Lk) inserts in Chapter 3 a different genealogy starting with
Joseph, going backwards in time to
Abraham, and then continuing all the way back to Adam.
Luke
(1, 2) relates the Promise of John the Baptist, the Annunciation, Mary’s visit
to Elizabeth, the birth of John the Baptist.
Both
Matthew and Luke mention the birth of Jesus.
Matthew describes the visit of the Magi, sometimes called Wise Men or
astrologers, the flight into
B. Galilean Section.
All
three of the synoptics contribute this section, which
includes the preaching of John the Baptist, his baptism of Jesus, The
Temptation, Jesus preaching in
Then
Matthew recounts the Sermon on the Mount, and Luke recounts the related sermon
on the plain. This is followed by nine chapters
in Luke called the Great Intercalation which have no counterpart in the other
Gospels.
In
the remainder of the Galilean section the three synoptics
discuss a series of parables. various healings, and two predictions of the Passion. They all recount the feeding of the 5000, the Confession of
Peter at Caesarea-Philippi, the conditions of discipleship, the
Transfiguration, the dispute about greatness, etc. The parable of the vineyard [Mt 20:1-16]
mentions hiring workers at the hours of prime, terce,
sext and none that later became traditional canonical
hours for saying the Divine Office or Breviary.
These were also the hours when Roman soldiers used to change the
watch.
C. Judean
Section
The
journey to
The
days in
The
so-called Synoptic Apocalypse concerns the signs of the end of the age, the
coming persecution, the desolating sacrifice, lesson of the fig tree, the day
and hour are unknown, the Last Judgement.
D. Arrest, Passion and Death.
The
last days include a traitor revealed, institution of the Lord’s Supper, last
words, Peter’s denial predicted.
The
Passion began with the agony in Garden of Gethsemane; Jesus taken captive,
death of Judas, trial before Pilate, trial before Herod, sentence to death by
Pilate, mocking of the soldiers, Simon of Cyrene
helps carry the cross, crucifixion, burial, and guarding the tomb.
E. Resurrection
The empty tomb, bribing the soldiers, the Road to Emmaus,
appearances to the disciples, Ascension.
The Acts of the Apostles, written by Luke, add many more details about
the resurrected Jesus.
3. GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW
The
author of what we call the first Gospel is unknown, but according to Tradition
it is Matthew the publican or tax collector from
The
Gospel has seven sections: an initial infancy narrative [1:1 to 2:23], followed by five so called books [3:1 to
25:46] each of which begins with a narrative and ends with a discourse, and
there is a concluding narrative of the
Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus [26:1 to 28:20]. Each discourse ends with a phrase to the
effect “When Jesus finished these words.”
The topics of the five books and their corresponding discourses are as
follows:
1. The Proclamation of the Word [3:1 to
2. The Ministry in
3. Opposition from
4.
Jesus, the Kingdom, and the Church [
5.
Ministry in
The Sermon on the Mount, considered by many as the
best part of Matthew, includes the Beatitudes and the Our Father. The long Eschatological Discourse concerns
the end times, and the coming of the Son of Man. Incidents that appear only in the Gospel of
Matthew are: a) the parables of the sower, the weeds
among wheat, the treasure buried in a field, the pearl of great price, and the
net thrown into the sea [Chap. 13], b) the payment of the temple tax
[17:24-27], c) the parable of the unforgiving servant [18:23-35], d) the Last Judgement [25:31-46], and e) the death of Judas [27:3-10].
4.
GOSPEL ACCORDING TO
MARK
Mark’s
Gospel was the first to be written, and it is the least systematic in
arrangement.
Mark, also called John Mark in the Acts of the
Apostles, was Jewish, and a cousin of Barnabas.
Many scholars believe that Matthew and Luke made use of Mark’s Gospel as
source material for their narrative sections. Mark was an interpreter of St.
Peter, and some say that his Gospel could claim the authority of Peter.
In
Mark’s Gospel the people initially welcomed Jesus, but their enthusiasm faded
when he did not seem to fit their expectations as a political liberator. As a result Jesus devoted much time to
instructing his disciples, and the success of this was confirmed at
Caesarea-Philippi where Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ [Mark
The Gospel according to Mark
has six main subdivisions:
1.
Preparation for the Public Ministry [1:1 to
2. Galilean Ministry; the Mystery of Jesus [
3.
Initial Revelation of the Mystery [
4.
The Mystery Becomes Manifest [
5.
Passion, Death and Resurrection [14:1 to 16:8].
6.
Longer Ending [16:9 to
5.
GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE
St.
Luke was the author of the two part work consisting of the third Gospel and the
Acts of the Apostles. Both were written
in an excellent Greek style. He was a
physician, a Greek gentile convert who accompanied Paul on his second and third
missionary journeys and his final trip to
Luke
follows Mark’s outline with some sections rearranged. He also has a special section [
The Gospel of Luke has eight main divisions
as follows (according to the New American Bible)
1.
Prologue [1:1 to 4].
2. Infancy Narrative [1:5 to
3.
Preparation for Public Ministry [3:1 to
4.
Ministry in
5.
Journey to
6.
Teaching in
5.
Passion and Death [21:1 to
6.
Resurrection [24:1 to 24:53].
In addition to the Great
Insertion [9:51 to 18:14] and some infancy accounts [Chap. 1] there are several
incidents which appear only in Luke: a) the Woes [6:24-26], b) raising the son
of the widow from Naim [7:11-17], c) Zacchaeus the tax collector [19:1-10], and d) the
appearance of the risen Jesus on the road to Emmaus [24:13-35].
6.
GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN
John
the evangelist, who referred to himself as the “beloved disciple”, is believed
by many to have written the fourth Gospel, the Apocalypse or Book of Revelation,
and three epistles. The traditional belief is that the Gospel was written while
John was in exile on the
Doris
Christley pointed out to me that in the stained glass
window of the four evangelists in
John was a Galilean
fisherman, a son of Zebedee, and a brother of James the Greater. The purpose of this Gospel is given at the
end [20:31]: “These (words) are written that you may believe that Jesus is the
Messiah, the Son of God, and that
through this belief you may have life life in his
name.” It presents the ancient Christian
kerygma (i.e. message) which asserts that the Baptist
testified, the Holy Spirit came, Jesus is the Messiah, Christ’s glory is
evident from his words and his deeds, he redeemed us by his Passion, Death and
Resurrection, he sent out his apostles to proclaim the message with the power
to forgive sins. There is an emphasis on
knowledge, on dualistic contrasts such as light - darkness, and truth - lies,
on clarifying the significance of the events of Christ’s life.
The
Gospel of John is very symbolic. There
is less concern for narration and more for theological interpretation. There is
an initial Prologue [1:1-18] which sets the themes for the Gospel. Jesus is God, the preexistent incarnate Word
revealed to us by the Father. Then there is an emphasis on and enumeration of
the seven signs whose significances are explained. They are: (a) changing water
into wine at Cana [2:1-11], (b) curing the son of the
royal official [4:46-54], ( c) curing the paralytic [5:5-9], (d) multiplication
of the loaves [6:1-15], (e) walking on water [6:16-21], (f) young man born
blind [9:1-41], and (g) raising of Lazarus [11:1-44]. This Book of Signs is followed by the account
of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus, referred to as the book of
Glory. The Gospel ends with an Epilogue
[21:1-21]. There are many details about
the public ministry of Jesus that are not found in the other Gospels. It
details a three year public ministry, judging by the trips back and forth
between
The fourfold subdivision of
the book is:
1. Prologue [1:1 to
2. Seven Signs [
3. Passion, Death and Resurrection [13:1 to
4. Epilogue [21:1 to
The
Gospel of John, not being a synoptic one, has many incidents of Jesus’ life
which are unique to it: a) The marriage feast of Cana
[4:4-42], b) the healing at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath, the work of
the Son, witnesses to Jesus, and the unbelief of his hearers [Chap. 5], c) the Bread of Life discourse [6:22-65], d) teaching in
the Temple [7:14-39], e) the woman caught in adultery [7:53 to 8:11], f) the
man born blind [Chap. 9], g) the Good Shepherd [10:1-18], h) the raising of
Lazarus [11:1-44], and i) the long Last Supper
Discourse which ends with the Priestly Prayer of Jesus [Chap. 14 to 17]. It is a peculiarity of John’s Gospel that he
never mentions his own name, and he never mentions the name of Mary, the mother
of Jesus. At the Marriage feast of
7. RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THE FOUR GOSPELS
To
show how the Gospels are related to each other I took the tables of contents of
each Gospel from the Jerome Biblical Commentary, and connected parallel
sections, as shown in the Handout.
In
the second century the Christian apologist Tatian
(110 - 180 AD) wrote his Diatessaron which consists
of the four Gospels woven together as a continuous narrative. It was used in the liturgy of the
There
are books in which the texts of the various Gospels are printed in parallel
columns, with corresponding sections or events appearing side by side. The Canons of Eusebius to be discussed in the
next section could be used to prepare such a work. The book called Gospel
Parallels (B. H. Throckmorton, Ed.) correlates the three SynopticGospels,
and another called Synopsis of the Four Gospels (K. Aland,
Ed.) correlates all four of them. One can gain a great deal of insight into the
life of Jesus by attending a bible discussion group which uses a parallel
Gospel book as the text.
8. CANONS OF EUSEBIUS
In
the early centuries of Christianity Eusebius divided the text of each Gospel
into numbered pericopes or sections: 355 for Matthew,
233 for Mark, 342 for Luke and 232 for John. Some sections are very short,
containing only one or two verses, while others are much longer with many
verses. Each section was associated with
what Eusebius called a Canon containing particular parallel sections. For example, Canon I contains passages that
are found all four Gospels, such as the Crucifixion, Canon V contains events
such as the story of the house built upon the rock which appears only in
Matthew (7:24-27) and Luke (6:47-49), and Canon X contains passages that are
recorded in only one Gospel, such as the visit of Mary to Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-56). The thirteen Canons of Eusebius are as
follows:
Canon I (4 gospels) Matthew,
Mark, Luke, John 74 passages
Canon II (3 gospels) Matthew,
Mark, Luke 111
“
Canon
Canon IV (3 gospels) Matthew,
Mark, John 25 “
Canon V (2 gospels) Matthew,
Luke 82 “
Canon VI 2 gospels)
Matthew,
Mark 47 “
Canon
Canon VIII (2
gospels) Mark, Luke 13 “
Canon IX (2 gospels) Luke,
John 21
“
Canon X (1 gospel) Matthew 62
“
Canon X (1 gospel) Mark ` 19
“
Canon
X (1 gospel) Luke
72 “
Canon X (1 gospel) John
96 “
The last column gives the number of passages in the
Gospels that correspond to each canon.
The sections were chosen by Eusebius so that each of them appears in
only one canon.
The
numbers in the table above can be used to construct the following Eusebian triangle which displays the extent of the overlap
between the three Synoptic Gospels:
Mark
19
72 185 13
69 104 93
Matthew Luke
9.
Q-SOURCE
The
Gospel of Mark is believed to be the oldest, and
probably provided source material for Matthew and Luke. Some scripture scholars postulate that there
was a another Gospel called the Q-source circulating in apostolic times
containing the sayings of Jesus, and available to the evangelists when they
wrote their Gospels, The name Q-source is derived from the German word Quelle which means source.
This is supported by the fact that only 8% of the sections (Canon X) of
Mark have no overlap with other Gospels, compared to 17% for Matthew and 21%
for Luke. In contrast to this 41% of the
sections of John are in Canon X, having no overlap with the Synoptic Gospels,
since John wrote independently of the others.
The large number of combinations in Canon II support
this speculation. .
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I
would like to thank Doris Christley for her critical
reading of, and her thoughtful comments and recommendations concerning, the
first draft of this work.