Background Info on Gospel Accounts

Today seems as good a place as any to insert information about the gospel records. Reading the Bible chronologically, with different gospel accounts of the same events read together, the similarities are apparent. Sometimes the accounts are identical. So who wrote the gospels, in what order, and to what audience? Two of the books were written by disciples...Matthew, who was the tax collector known as Levi that we read about today, and John, "the disciple Jesus loved". The other two books were written by companions of apostles. Mark, also known as John Mark, was the missionary companion of Peter and Luke was the companion of Paul. It is supposed that Matthew's was the first gospel written, somewhere between 50 and 55 AD- within 25 years of jesus' ministry. Mark is estimated to have been written between 55 and 60 AD. Luke wrote in 60 AD, followed by John somewhere between 81 and 96 AD. The three synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) are very similar, while John the majority (90%) of John's gospel is unique. Having written his gospel so much later than the others, John would have had access to what had been written and may have deliberately chosen to highlight new material. He does not mention many of the big events of Jesus' life that had been adequately covered in the other gospels; i.e. His birth, baptism, temptation, transfiguration, and ascension. He chose instead to focus on Jesus early ministry and final days, offering many more details than the synoptic gospels.

There are many theories as to the reasons the other three gospels are so similar. Some assume that Matthew was used as a source document for the other two. Some believe that there were other unnamed source documents used by all three that are no longer available to us. And some believe that the similarities are due to the simple fact that these eyewitnesses saw the same things! Surely whenever they were together they talked extensively of their time with Jesus and relived these accounts regularly. And at the time, they were simply writing letters to to tell specific audiencess about Jesus, not writing with the intent of having the letters published into one book. Matthew, a Jew, wrote to the Jews. Mark, wrote to Roman Christians. Luke wrote to Theophilus, a Greek convert, and his message is targeted at the Gentiles. John was written to the Christians of Asia Minor. Since most of these people would have had access to just one of the letters, there was nothing redundant about them.

Tommorrow's reading:John 5:1-47; Mark 2:23-3:6; Matthew 12:1-21; Luke 6:1-11