Hayford 3
Ryan Hayford
Mr. Stanczyk
Sophomore Theology Honors
25 September 2017
Why are there 4 Gospels?
1) Why do we have 4 different accounts (gospels) of Jesus' life and teachings?
The gospel writers tell us the story about the life of Christ, told from different perspectives because each disciple had a unique message to a different audience. They were written between two generations after the death of Jesus, and are based on the stories of Jesus and his ministry, told by his followers. The church did not combine these accounts into one gospel, but preserved them as four, maintaining their individual views of the teachings, ministry and life of Jesus. In Matthew, Jesus was the Messiah of Israel. He is the ideal servant
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They would only listen to their own, so the strategies Mark used were to draw parallels between the life of Jesus and events from Israel’s history. His gospel parallels the Torah, the most sacred book of the Hebrew Bible, and the five books of Moses. It tells the relationship of Jesus to the Old Testament prophets. Matthew wrote to prove that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Messiah’s prophecy; the King of the Jews. He records how the promises God made in the Old Testament, are realized in Jesus. Matthew encouraged Jewish converts to maintain their Hebrew Scriptures, which now gained significance through Jesus and continue to be the sacred scribe of the kingdom of heaven.
3) Who was Mark's primary audience? What unique strategies does he use to address this audience?
Mark’s gospel was written Christians who were living under threat of persecution by the Jews in the Roman Empire who were unfamiliar with the Jewish religion. Christ is portrayed as the servant and the son of God. Since Mark was not written to a Jewish audience, his strategy was to explain customs that Jews would have known, that the Romans would be unfamiliar with. His gospel is action-packed with the powerful ministries of Christ, to show He could meet their deepest needs.
4) Who was Luke's primary audience? What unique strategies does he use to address this
The Gospel of Matthew presents the promised Messiah, the immaculate Savior and King of the Jews. Matthew’s Gospel has a clear purpose and is unique for its linkage of the New and Old Testament through Jesus Christ. Matthew shows ages of prophecy fulfilled through a single life span of one man’s life. The fulfillment of the law is found in Christ and he recapitulates Israel in a condensed manner perfectly. The Gospel, also goes on to show the Israelites rejection of Christ as their Savior, their King and depicts a new gathering of people to Christ.
The Gospel of Luke was written by a Greek- speaking Christian. It was not written to replace the Gospel of Mark, but as a new account written for an audience under different circumstances than Mark’s community. The church was becoming more Gentiles than Jews. Most people in Luke’s community were not familiar with the Jewish traditions that were referred to by many preachers. Many members of the community were well off as well. This community struggled to follow a church that had a Hebrew core. These issues are what influenced Luke’s writing. Luke wanted his community to know that they were all included in God’s plan for salvation even though in history the Jews would have been the first to know. A few of the major themes of Luke’s Gospel were: salvation for all, mercy and forgiveness, and modern
The Gospel according to Matthew is the first book of the New Testament. The story explains how the Messiah, Jesus, was refused by Israel and finally sent the disciples to preach the gospel around the whole world. As Matthew wrote for his fellow Jews, he wrote his Gospel in the language Jesus spoke, Aramaic, which led early Church Fathers to believe Matthew’s was the first Gospel. On the other hand, the Gospel of Mark teaches that Jesus is the Son of God who assumed human nature. Mark wrote the gospel in Greek for a Gentile-Christian audience, which was undergoing persecution, perhaps in Rome. A central theme is that following Jesus often means that a Christian must suffer like Jesus did. Mark’s Gospel points out that Jesus accepted this important title, but that he was reluctant to let people know his identity. (Matthew 26:26-30 and Mark 14:22-26 )
John Mark was the author of the book of Mark in the New Testament. John Mark was traveling companion of Paul and interpreter for Peter in Rome(Harris,2014). It is believed that his accounts in the book of Mark came from oral passing knowledge regarding Jesus from individuals in the area. This word of mouth passing of information is hard for scholars to verify. Some say that John Mark wrote his gospel after the Jewish Revolt against Rome began. Scholars come to ths belief based on the focus on discord towards believers, war and destruction which would bring about the second coming of Christ(Harris,2014). With all the clues and information found in the book of Mark,it is still not known for cetainity who wrote the Gospel. The true author is considered
Gospel is an old English word meaning “good news.” When comparing the four gospels they are all unified, but each gospel can have slight differences to them. Whether is literary structure, length, how many teachings, important events, different significance, geography or chronology; they all are correlated to tell us Jesus’ story, in their own way. In like manner, God didn’t give us one explanation from an confined individual. Rather, God educates us about the broad richness of Jesus’ life through a numerous prophet-witnesses. Moreover, God works through well-documented and a valid history, not through confidential revelations to a single person. The prophetic witnesses of the Gospels endorse the truth that God himself is speaking. Each Gospel
The book was written as Peter’s testimony. His writings were episodic and Mark was very accurate in his depictions. The book of Mark is unique because he never writes about the birth of Jesus, his childhood, or anything before his baptism with John the Baptist. After Jesus’ Baptism, He starts his ministry to prepare the people for God’s kingdom. Mark devotes more than half of his book to Jesus’s miracles. He tells the story of Jesus healing the sick, those who are paralyzed, feeding the five thousand, stopping the storm of Galilea, and many other events. Mark also writes about numerous encounters Jesus had with the Pharisee and Sadducee he had while spreading his word.
Mark’s gospel was written in a year between 66 and 70EC around the time of the Jewish revolt (Harris 137). This gospel was written for the gentile Christians in the time of persecution. Mark used primary oral tradition as his source for his gospel. The Gospel of Luke is believed by scholars to be written a man named Luke.
Several times he was approached and inquired about specific laws and traditions that the people at the time observed and that Jesus was supposedly breaking. He quickly dismissed the old traditions and explained how old traditions actually go against the flow of what God truly wishes for his people. In addition, Mark includes the beheading of John the Baptist and the reasoning behind it. This is weird because it doesn’t really flow with the followings of Jesus and his miracles, except for the fact that Herod had been told that Jesus was John the Baptists raised from the dead. Mark doesn’t have the same focus as the book of John, but it gives more of a picture of how Jesus would look if you were to not be an eye witness at all of the events or miracles that are mentioned in Mark. It is definitely heavily influenced by the power of Jesus and how this would make him the Son of God.
Mark, Matthew, John, and Luke are the four gospel writers that describe Jesus in different perspectives. In the Gospel of Matthew, presents the Messiah (Jesus), as the promised Savior, the King of the Jews and talks of wise men and their expensive gifts, but not as shepherds. For Mark, sees Jesus as a perfect servant of god. Also in Mark sees Jesus as mysterious and intentionally keeps people from understanding who he really is by telling the people he performs miracles on a secret. Jesus seems to be a very secretive kind of figure in Mark's gospel.
The book of Mark, although described in the Gundry text to be “loosely arranged and fast paced” recounts the story of Jesus with more first hand background details than both Matthew and Luke who traveled with Jesus. The book of Mark is also gives a better
The purpose of the Gospel of Mark is to show that our Lord Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Son of God who was sent to suffer and to serve in order to rescue and restore mankind. It is widely recognized that the theme of this Gospel comes out chapter ten and verse forty-five, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
Mark: The Gospel of Mark tells the story of Jesus Christ’s life from when he was baptized by John the Baptist until the days of his death, and his resurrection. Mark was the second of four Gospels although some Scholars argue and insist Mark was the first Gospel written 1. Mark was written by John Mark in AD 65, with a target audience of Roman Christian beleivers 2. Mark was written in a unique manner in regards to literary genre, as it contains figures of speech, and portray life situations in a passionate story like setting that can make the reader feel as if he is there 3. The Gospel of Mark is the shortest of the four Gospels, however it is written in a manner that emphasizes more so on Jesus’s works than Jesus’s words 4. The key theme in Mark is to portray the life of Jesus Christ as the son of God 5, and the purpose was to show the human qualities and emotions that Jesus displayed from anger (Mark 3:5), and compassion (Mark 1:41). Some of the key events of Jesus Christ’s life in the Gospel Mark include his miracles, his entrance into Jerusalem, the last supper, his arrest and trial, his crucifixion, his resurrection, and his ascension 6. The Gospel of Mark ends with his instruction to the eleven Apostles “And he said unto them “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 16:16), and his ascension into Heaven (Mark 16:19).
The gospel of Matthew differs from the teaching approach of Marks. Jesus’ teachings in Matthew are very direct whereas Marks Gospel is vague and not as detailed. Gospel of Marks is story of Jesus as a servant someone who helpful and can do anything for the good of people. Whereas, Matthew emphases Jesus as a King, someone who is keeps all that is promised by the prophets in the old testaments. Mark defines Jesus in a very mysterious character to be very mysterious as Jesus frequently commands people that he helps not to tell anyone. This shows that Jesus wanted to be a mystery. In addition Mark 16:1-8 he commands the women not to tell anyone as she see’s the open tomb Even the ending, of the gospel where there is just an empty tomb he commands the women to tell no one (Mark 16:1-8). Whereas, in Gospel according to Matthew Jesus is straightforward. He is expressive does not care to be kept a secret. In addition, Matthew portrayal of Jesus is more forgiving while Marks portrayal of Jesus is based on the influence. For example, in Matthew 8:23-27 while there is a storm coming his disciples show their belief in his power by not questioning him. Whereas, in Mark 4:35-41 the disciples question Jesus not understanding his power. This shows that Matthew portrayed Jesus as being powerful and the faith of the disciples to be strong differing from
Mark’s Gospel was the first of the Synoptic Gospels and because of this it was the basis of writing for Matthew and Luke . Mark uses intercalation and is the longest of the three. Mark’s gospel was very much toward the Jewish Christians and written during the First Jewish Revolt around 65-70 CE. In understanding Matthew’s background of this miracle, we have to understand that this was the most
The Gospel of Mark according to tradition was written by John Mark, a man that traveled with Paul and Peter as his interpreter (Harris, 2014). Since the author does not identify himself, the scholars say that this book is referred to as Mark for convenience. John Mark only wrote about what he had heard from others concerning the Lord’s sayings, but never compared it the other written documentation. According to theological studies, Mark dealt with this task assuming that less is more. Also, those that are described in his writing are seen clearly as to their contributions that were made (Endres et al., 1988).