THE GOSPELS
• NT Writings
• The Gospels
o “Gospel”
o The Four Written Gospels
o Communities Behind the
Gospels
• 3 Stages of Gospel
Formation
THE GOSPELS
• The Synoptic Gospels
• Authorship
• Further Reading & Useful
Websites
WRITINGS OF NT
• 4 Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John
• The Acts of the Apostles
• 13 Letters of St. Paul
• 7 “Catholic” Letters of John, Peter, James, Jude
• Letter to the Hebrews
• Book of Revelation
THE GOSPELS
• Gospels are faith-coloured narratives
• “Gospel” – euangelion - Good News!
o Isaiah 52:7
o Romans 1:16-17
• Sources for knowing about Jesus’ life
o Extra-biblical: Josephus (Jewish) & Tacitus (Roman)
o NT writings & the Gospels
o Apocryphal gospels
STAGES OF GOSPEL
FORMATION
• 1 Corinthians 15:3-4
o Jesus’ identity asserted
o His mission interpreted
o Consistent with prophecy
HELPFUL GUIDES
• Pontifical Biblical Commission: “Historical Truth of
the Gospels” (1964)
• Dei Verbum (Vatican II: “Dogmatic Constitution on
Divine Revelation”) (1965)
• Catechism of the Catholic Church (§51-141) (1992;
rev. 1997)
• Pontifical Biblical Commission: “Interpretation of
the Bible in the Church” (1993)
• Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England & Wales &
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Scotland: “The Gift
of Scripture” (2005)
STAGES OF GOSPEL
FORMATION
• “To judge properly concerning the reliability
of what is transmitted in the Gospels, the
interpreter should pay diligent attention to the
three stages of tradition by which the doctrine
& the life of Jesus have come down to us”
PBC, The Historical Truth of the
Gospels(VI,2).
• Catechism of Catholic Church (CCC) n.126
STAGES OF GOSPEL
FORMATION
Stage 1: The public ministry of Jesus of
Nazareth (c.30-33 AD)
Stage 2: The apostolic preaching about Jesus
(c.33-70 AD)
Stage 3: The evangelists’ written Gospels
(c.70-100 AD)
THE PREACHERS
• “interpreted his words & deeds according to
the needs of their listeners,” using
“catecheses, stories, testimonia, hymns,
doxologies, prayers, & other literary forms of
this sort”
PBC, The Historical Truth of the
Gospels (VIII)
THE EVANGELISTS
• Wrote, “for the benefit of the Churches, with
a method suited to the peculiar purpose
which each one set for himself. From the
many things handed down, they selected some
things, reduced others to a synthesis, (still)
others they explicated as they kept in mind
the situation of the Churches”
PBC, The Historical Truth of the
Gospels (IX).
THE EVANGELISTS
• “This means, then, that none of the
evangelists was an eyewitness of Jesus’
ministry. They heard about Jesus & his
ministry
from
others
who
were
“eyewitnesses” & who had become ‘ministers
of the word’ (Lk 1:2)”
Joseph Fitzmyer, Christological
Catechism, p.25.
THE EVANGELISTS
• “The wide recognition that the evangelists were not
eyewitnesses of Jesus’ ministry is important for
understanding the differences in the Gospels. In the
older approach wherein eyewitness testimony was
directly involved, it was very difficult to explain
differences in the Gospels… The evangelists, who
were not eyewitnesses, had a task that the preachers
of Stage Two never had, namely, to shape a
sequential narrative from Jesus’ baptism to his
resurrection” Raymond E. Brown, Reading the
Gospels with the Church, pp.16,17.
THE GOSPELS
• Can help us to a knowledge of:
o Jesus
o The Communities
o The authors (evangelists)
THE GOSPELS
• “Synoptic” Gospels
• Origins:
o E. Mediterranean
(Mt & Jn)
o Rome (Mk)
o Greece (Lk)
SYNOPTIC PROBLEM
DIFFERENCES IN SYNOPTICS
•
•
•
•
•
•
Address different audiences
Communities in different places
Different pressures
Different perspectives on Jesus
Different portrayal of disciples
View of Christian life in the Church
THE GOSPELS
• Koine Greek
• Earliest mss date
from 2nd & 3rd cent.
• Date of composition
DEI VERBUM 19
• “The sacred authors, in writing the four
Gospels, selected certain of the many elements
which had been handed on, either orally or
already in written form, others they synthesised
or explained with an eye to the situation of the
churches, the while sustaining the form of
preaching, but always in such a fashion that
they have told us the honest truth about Jesus.”
MEANING?
• The Gospels must be read from three
perspectives:
oThe evangelists
oThe early Church
oJesus
• Evangelists: select, shape & proclaim