Book notes on the Gospels

(Originally written January 6, 2006 in Notebook 20)

Bible Study: Mark Ch. 1-10

The Promise and The Blessing Pg. 373-383

There were two important births in the New Testament: John the Baptist and Jesus.

400 years after the Old Testament the Jews were oppressed by the Romans but hopeful of the coming Messiah.

Anyone professing to be the Messiah would have to meet three criteria:
1) Genealogical requirement
- be a descendent of Abraham
- be from the tribe of Judah
- be from the line of David

2) Prophetic Strand
- Must be born in Bethlehem
- Mother must be a virgin
- He must flee to Egypt and be called back by God

3) Physical evidences
- his public actions, i.e. healing the sick

The gospels are not a biography of Jesus' life

What is a gospel?
- The word, 'gospel', comes from the Greek word for "good news"
- A gospel is a document that proclaims that Jesus was the promised Messiah, and gives evidence to demonstrate that claim

The primary proof that Jesus was the Messiah is His resurrection

Why are the four gospels so similar and yet at the same time different?
- Marcan priority: Matthew and Luke used Mark as a source
- Matthean priority: Mark and Luke used Matthew as a source

Today it is widely held that Mark is the oldest Gospel. The reason for this belief of Mark being the oldest for:
- The dating of the books (65 A.D.)
- Mark is the shortest Gospel and any gospel written after the first would not omit events
- Matthew and Luke contain things like genealogies and the Sermon on the Mont which are not found in Mark

There is called the two-source theory, meaning Matthew and Luke used Mark and another source for their gospels

The second source is the Q-source.
- Problems with the Q-source is that we have no evidence of it and it does not account for differences in Matthew and Luke

There is a four source theory that uses four sources for Matthew & Luke
1) Mark
2) Q-Source
3) M-Source
4) L-Source

Unfortunately these theories reduce Matthew and Luke to mere copies or redactors (research writers)

The early church began with a few convictions:
1) Eye witness accounts of the resurrection
2) a belief that Jesus would return soon
3) there was a need to spread their beliefs to as many folks as possible

The eye witness accounts were given as oral tradition

Jesus used the oral tradition and his followers would have heard the same message preached at every town they visited.

As well as oral tradition, events in Jesus' life that were important were recorded in the Gospels
- the story of feeding the 5,000 is the only one to be in all four Gospels
- Other events were included in each of the gospels according to the writer's personal interests

The spread of the gospel began on the day of Pentecost. Eye witness accounts were given for years. New Christians memorized these accounts and spread the news throughout the world. This lasted 20-25 years.

The Gospels began to be written after James, the brother of Jesus was executed. The apostles were seeing that they too could be killed.

Then Paul sets out on his missionary visits and starts writing letters. These letters were being collected as the gospels were being written.

Matthew remained in Judea 15 years after James' death (45 A.D.) then traveled east to Syria and Persia. It is stated Matthew wrote his gospel in Hebrew or Aramaic and it was copied in Greek later.

Luke followed Matthew in the late 50's A.D.

Mark wrote Peter's account around 64 A.D. either just before or just after Peter's death.

John wrote his book in 90 A.D. when the Church was in the third generation and no other eye witness accounts were left.

John's book contains less events but more explanation and is more theological than the other gospels.