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THE GOSPELS
The First 4 Books of the New Testament are referred to as the Gospels. The word Gospel means "good news" and they each tell the story of the life of Jesus. [Three of these books (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) share similar language and story, and are referred to as the Synoptic Gospels (*See below for more info)]
Books:
1. Matthew
2. Mark
3. Luke
4. John
Who:
According to tradition, each Gospel was written and/or dictated by the name associated with it: Matthew and John were apostles of Jesus, Mark was a close friend of the apostle Peter, and Luke was also a missionary companion of Paul. [*Many modern scholars dispute claims that Matthew and John actually wrote their respective Gospels; this appears to be the case because to accept that an actual apostle wrote the Gospel would be to give too much historical credence to the life of Jesus, which seems to be a major faux pas in modern academic circles.]
When:
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke were written between the early 50s AD and the late 60s AD. The Gospel of John was written sometime between 50s and 70s AD [*Modern scholars claim that Gospel of Mark was written first, sometime in the 60s AD, Matthew and Luke were written in the 70s-80s AD and John was written 80s-90s AD]
THEOLOGICAL POSTS ABOUT THE GOSPELS:
GOSPEL - BIBLE VERSES
THE SYNOPTIC PROBLEM
What is the Synoptic Problem?
Three of the four Gospels — Matthew, Mark, and Luke — share an undeniable literary connection, and because of this connection they are classified together as the “Synoptic” Gospels (thus leaving out the Gospel of John which is markedly different). The word synoptic can be broken down etymologically into syn which means “together” and optic which refers to “sight.” That is to say, synoptic means “seen together.” These three Gospels are “seen together” so to speak, because of the clear interdependence of their language. These three Gospels share near verbatim passages, in a remarkably similar order, and it is difficult to know what to make of this clear overlap. Herein lies the problem. Where one Gospel appears to be copying from another, that one seems to be in turn copying from the third, which in turn seems to be copying from the first. In other words, the Synoptic Problem is trying to figure out how to unravel this mystery of textual interdependence in order to deduce who is the source for whom, and where these teachings of Jesus originate.
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