Morton
GTW TheGospels:TheirNarratives,Parables,andEvents
Christopher Falls Session 2: Week 1
Similarities and Differences in the Four Gospels
Christians love Paul. They enjoy books like 1 John, Psalms, and Isaiah. But if you look around
town on any given Sunday, the Gospels are preached far less regularly. Why is this? Part of this
is because the Gospels (aside from parts of John and the Sermon on the Mount) dont easily fall
into a three point sermon. The storytelling aspect of the Gospels makes them more difficult to
quickly pull out important points, requiring the reader to read through the whole Gospel to grasp
what the writer was trying to convey. Additionally, the narrative includes strange occurrences,
mysterious teachings, and parables that are not always easy to explain (for example The
Parable of the Wrong Dressed Wedding Guest Matthew 22:1-14). And there are the differences
between the Gospels, and not just the Synoptics1 and John, but between all of the Gospels. If we
believe that the Bible as Gods written Word is trustworthy and reliable, how do we deal with the
disparities? And how do we read the Gospels in order to make us fall in love with the one who is
the fullness of the Triune God in flesh Jesus of Nazareth?
The nature of the Gospels
There are about fifty total gospels, though most are known only by reference in other sources.
Very few exist in written form today. But that raises the question, what is a Gospel? It is not a
history book. At least not in the way we think of history books in our day and age (a
dispassionate recording of the facts). It is not biography (that style of literature did not exist in
the 1st century A.D.). It is not hagiography, a form of literature that tells only the good things of
someone that became popular in the 4th century after the widespread acceptance of Christianity in
the Empire to preserve the life story of saints.
The Gospels are in fact their own type of literature. They are one part history (in that they do
relay historical facts), one type propaganda piece (they are clearly designed to elicit a response),
and finally they are a story that is meant to bring the listeners (for they were designed to be read
aloud) into the midst of the Good news of the Kingdom of God come to earth literally the
narrative of the Gospels are the relaying of the gospel as God changed creation history. In this
way, they are unique in all literature, not just Christian but in the entire world. And in this, they
require us to read them in a way very different from that which we read other biblical books.
More important information on the Gospels
Perhaps the most important information is that all four of the Gospels in the Christian canon
were written within no more than 60 years of Jesus life (and likely far earlier, at least in the case
of one of the Gospels). While that seems like a long time to us, in historical understanding that
is very soon. It didnt allow for the development of a mythical Jesus as the earliest disciples
were still alive to protect the tradition. Gospels written in the 2nd and 3rd century (most notably
the Gospel of Thomas) are later, show an aggrandizement of the person of Jesus, and are without
a doubt infected by the Gnostic tradition which battled orthodox Christianity from the 1st
until late the mid 5th century. We also know that the four Gospels we have today were the recognized
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The Synoptic Gospels are the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke. These Gospels tell the story of Jesus from a
similar point of view, often using the same stories and even the same words. The term "synoptic" is derived from a
combination of the Greek words ("syn" = together) and ("opsis" = seeing) because they can be studied
side-by-side on a single page. (from WordIQ.com).
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TheGospels:TheirNarratives,Parables,andEvents
Christopher Morton
GTW Falls Session 2: Week 1
Gospels of choice by no later than 170A.D. when Diatessaron (or harmony of the four) was
completed by Tatian. No other gospel had any sort of serious following, and when time came to
determine the canon no orthodox theologian considered any others for inclusion.
Most likely all of the Gospels began as oral tradition, and were only later written down. Jesus
teaching were not taken down by the Jerusalem Post in dictation form, and that creates some of
the differences in the readings of the accounts in the four gospels and a great deal of the
similarity in the Synoptics. Other theories have arisen to account for differences and similarities,
but quite simply no one answer alone is enough to account for the state of the Synoptics, let
alone the Gospel of John.
Similarities
There are only three events that appear in all four Gospels: the cleansing of the Temple, the
feeding of the 5,000, and the death of Jesus. These three events are especially important because
they are used in each Gospel in a different way, to communicate something different about Jesus.
Aside from that, the feel, the look, the chronology, and the intended audience of each Gospel
makes them less similar and more differentuntil we read and study all four and see in the end
that they provide a picture big enough to begin to understand the one man, Jesus of Nazareth, in
enough color to see him as the one who is both the Son of Man and the Son of God.
Passages:
Cleansing of the Temple:
Feeding of the 5,000:
The Death and Burial:
Matt 21:12-13
Matt 14:13-21
Matt 27:45-61
Mark 11:15-17
Mark 6:32-44
Mark 15:33-47
Luke 19:45-46
Luke 9:10-17
Luke 23:44-56
John 2:14-22
John 6:1-15
John 19:28-42
Ways to Read the Gospels
As we study the Gospels over the next four weeks we will focus on several different aspects.
First, we will focus on understanding the theological point of the overall narrative. Take time
after reading the Gospel to see what your view of Jesus is at the end of your reading. Try your
best not to let your totality of knowledge skew your understanding of the message of each
Gospel. If you knew nothing about who this Jesus was before reading this Gospel, who would
you say he is at the end of it and what do you know about the God he is revealing?
To support this work, take time to look at:
1) What can you say about the disciples in this Gospel? Are they faithful, unfaithful do
they get it or are they lost?
2) What do the people get to understand about the Holy Spirit?
3) How does Jesus teach? What parables are used? Which are not?
4) What is the meaning of the cross to each writer?
5) What is the role of the resurrection in each Gospel? What response does it bring?
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