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Christian Enquiry Agency - Home Page

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Background to the New Testament: Why Four Gospels?

Background to the New Testament: Why Four Gospels


When one looks at a glossy automobile brochure one often finds photos of the vehicle taken from different angles – front, rear, side, interior, which together give a more accurate picture of the vehicle than one view alone could do. Similarly, the four gospels give us four different perspectives of Jesus, correlating with the character and insights of the authors.

The first three, Matthew, Mark and Luke, called collectively the Synoptic Gospels, have similar core material, 85% of Mark appearing in the other two. Luke and Matthew share some material that is not contained in Mark; each also has some independent material. John’s Gospel has some of the same stories but told in different words. The rest of John is quite different in the way it is presented. Mark was probably written first, although Matthew appears first in the Bible.

Matthew:

Author: Matthew, also called Levi, a Jewish tax-collector and public servant who had collaborated with the Romans but became one of Jesus’ 12 disciples.
Portrait of Jesus: the King of the Jews
Intention: to demonstrate Jesus’ claim to the title of King, his royal lineage, eg the visit of the wise men looking for the King of the Jews, King Herod’s jealousy, the charge of treason for claiming to be a king and the label on the cross all point to the Kingship of Jesus.
Intended audience: Jewish believers or inquirers. Also provides a discipleship manual for both Gentile and Jewish believers rooted in the Jewish faith.
Starting point: genealogy of Jesus’ legal father, Joseph, back through King David to Abraham, the progenitor of the Hebrew people.
Characteristics: quotes the Old Testament more than the other gospels. Very Jewish in character despite the opposition which Jesus received from the Jewish authorities. Teaching of Jesus divided into 5 sections (cf the five books of Moses), separated by actions of Jesus, eg. miracles, which illustrate the teaching.

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Mark:

Forms the back-bone of Luke’s and Matthew’s gospels but is written in a fast-paced style.
Author: John Mark, a young Jewish believer from a wealthy family. Cousin of Barnabas. Has a Jewish first name and Latin second name, suggesting he may have been a Roman citizen. His mother’s home in Jerusalem as a gathering place for the early church. Accompanied Paul, Barnabas, and Silas on various journeys. Personal assistant/secretary to Peter when he was in Rome. Collected Peter’s sermons.
Portrait of Jesus: Son of Man
Intention: to show that Jesus was both God and Man. Jesus’ identity is a key question.
Intended audience: Gentiles in Rome.
Starting point: John the Baptist (or the baptizer), Jesus’ cousin, a colourful character, preparing the way for Jesus’ ministry by preaching in the wilderness about the need for repentance as the Kingdom of God is about to appear.
Characteristics: Fast moving newscast consisting of “sound-bites” of Jesus’ deeds and sayings. Jesus gradually reveals who he is in order to avoid prematurely encouraging people into declaring him the Messiah and provoking the Romans too soon. Jesus’ humanity and divinity both emphasized. People’s response to Jesus was either fear or faith. His disciples gradually progress from fear to faith. Gospel has three possible endings found in different manuscripts, the shortest of which ends in mid-sentence immediately after Jesus’ resurrection, the longest version appears to summarize the endings of the other gospels.

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Luke

Author: Luke, a Greek-speaking physician, seasoned traveler and meticulous historian who accompanied Paul on some of his missionary journeys and was able to research his information over several years. Luke is the only Gentile author to pen a book in the Bible. Luke also wrote the book of Acts (which appears after John) as a sequel to his Gospel. Acts tells the story of the early church, from the time that Jesus ascended, until just before Paul and Peter were martyred in Rome.
Portrait of Jesus: The Saviour of the world, a “light to the Gentiles”
Intention: to persuade his readers that Jesus was innocent, and that the early Christians, were not a threat to the Roman Empire. Paints the Romans in a good light as wanting to declare Jesus innocent. Portrays Jesus as not only the Jewish saviour but as the saviour of the whole world, including the Gentiles.
Intended audience: written for someone by the name of Theophilus (see Acts 1:1) whose title of “most excellent” suggests he was a member of the legal profession or judiciary, possibly as a legal brief to assist in Paul’s trial on a charge of sedition. By extension, it is for Gentiles interested in the new Christian faith.
Starting point: the events surrounding the birth of Christ and his childhood. Jesus’ genealogy is traced back to Adam (stressing Jesus common humanity with all races, not just his Jewish heritage), following Mary’s line, rather than Joseph’s. Also tells us the background of John the Baptist.
Characteristics: Dr Luke’s compassion for the human condition is evident in his description of healing miracles and the nativity story, told from Mary’s perspective. He has a bias towards the poor, the marginalized and disadvantaged, such as Samaritans, tax-collectors and prostitutes. Instead of Matthew’s account of the Magi, Luke tells us about the humble shepherds coming to the stable and about Gentiles who have faith in Christ.

He tells more stories about women than the other gospels do. He also talks more about the role of the Holy Spirit, of angels and about heaven than the other Synoptics, and about the prayer-life of Jesus. Some of the most well-known parables (eg the Good Samaritan and the prodigal son) are found only in Luke.


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John

Author: John, son of Zebedee the fisherman, and brother of James. Jesus’closest friend and follower, one of the 12 disciples, the one Jesus assigned to look after His mother Mary when Jesus was crucified. The only one of the twelve to die of old age in exile on the island of Patmos (the others were all martyred). Also authored the letters of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John, and the book of Revelation.
Portrait of Jesus: eternal Son of God
Intention: (a) to encourage followers of Christ to continue believing in Him and thereby inherit eternal life. (b) to address two opposite early heresies in the early church: one which denied Jesus’ true humanity and the other which denied His divinity. John takes pains to show that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine.
Intended audience: committed Christians.
Starting point: Jesus’ eternal pre-existence as the Word of God, the reason (Greek “Logos”) behind all of creation. This “Word”, who was God, took on human flesh, lived, died and rose again bodily.
Characteristics: probably the last of the four gospels written. Shares only a small amount of material with the Synoptic gospels and uses different vocabulary even when he tells the same story. The most theologically-developed Gospel. Mentions only 7 miracles (in addition to the resurrection of Christ) and relatively few stories but recounts long discourses of teaching by Jesus. The miracles mentioned each set the stage for the teaching which follows. Tells of a number of different visits Jesus made to Jerusalem (the other Gospels only mention 1). Contains more teaching on the Holy Spirit than the other gospels. Doesn’t describe the institution of the Lord’s Supper (communion) but does provide spiritual teaching about it. He also quotes the 7 “I am” sayings of Jesus: I am…the door (or the gate), the good shepherd, the resurrection and the life, the way the truth and the life, the true vine, the light of the world, the bread of life.

If you are new to reading the scriptures, start with Mark or Matthew, then read Luke and Acts (the sequel to Luke) and finally John’s gospel.

Easter Weekend at COOL

Maundy Thursday:
This is the day Jesus celebrated the Passover with his 12 closest disciples, instituted the practice of remembering his death in the Lord's Supper (Holy Communion, Mass or the Eucharist) and taught them about servanthood before being betrayed by Judas, denied by Peter, tried three times (by the Jewish Authorities, by Pilate the Roman Governor, and by Herod the puppet King).
Tonight we shall have supper at 1930 Pridy Road, followed by the movie, "To End all Wars", an account of self-sacrifice and service set in the Japanese POW camps on the Burma railway.

Good Friday:
This is the day we commemorate Jesus' death on the cross for us.
Ecumenical service at Mark Isfeld Highschool at 10 am.
Tenebrae service at 7 pm at Comox Community Baptist Church, Anderton Road, Comox.

Easter Sunday:
Optional morning services at 10 am at Living Word Episcopal Church on Mission Hill in Courtenay or 10:30 am at Comox Community Baptist Church.
COOL will have an Easter Communion Service at 5 pm at 1930 Pridy Rd in Comox, followed by supper and week six of Christianity Explored: Jesus- his Resurrection.

Have a blessed Easter!

St Patrick:PFM | Apostle to the Irish

PFM | Apostle to the Irish

About COOL

Our gatherings are informal.
Our house church meets weekly for supper followed by a video or discussion . We have taken the Alpha Course together , discussed the Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren and Christianity Explored.
Larger celebrations follow a simplified liturgy (the ancient pattern of prayers and celebration of communion). We observe the rhythms of the church year which take us through the story of Jesus’ life and the experiences of his people, as described in scripture and the life of the early church.

Our faith is practical.
COOL members serve a variety of needs through Valley organizations: Sonshine Lunchclub, Crisis Pregnancy Centre, Habitat for Humanity, Transplant Society, Africa Community Technical Services, St Joseph’s Hospital, L’Arche, Order of St Luke, Youth Unlimited.

Our beliefs are simple:
We have no new or peculiar doctrines of our own. We promote only what C.S. Lewis called “mere Christianity”, the basic teaching that Christians have always believed, based on the Bible and the Creeds that are agreed upon by all major denominations.
Wherever you are on your spiritual journey, either as someone investigating faith for the first time, or a committed Christian, you are welcome to participate in this community.

ACiC Celebrations

The Anglican Communion in Canada was privileged to receive encouragement and ministry from Bishop "TJ" Johnston and his wife, Rees, this past week at a number of locations in BC. Bishop TJ is a missionary bishop of the Episcopal Province of Rwanda, one of the 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion. He oversees congregations in Canada and the USA on behalf of the Primates.

An information evening was held in Victoria to discuss the Windsor Report and the Primates' Communique. A joint service for the three Vancouver Island congregations in Nanaimo, a confirmation service at Pender Harbour, a Renewal Conference at St Simons, North Vancouver, and a large celebration at Richmond Emmanuel Church (with 102 confirmands) were among events packed into one week. People came from several provinces in Canada to participate. What a joy it is to receive pastoral care from a Godly and Spirit-filled shepherd.

Island Celebration with Bishop Johnston, Missionary Bishop of the Anglican Church of Rwanda

At 7 pm on Tuesday 8th March Bishop Johnston and his wife Rees will be joining the three ACiC congregations on Vancouver Island for a celebration of Holy Communion. This is the first time our bishop has led a service on the Island.

The service will be downstairs at the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Nanaimo (just north of the turnoff to the Departure Bay ferry on the service road next to the old Island highway).

Everyone is welcome.

Celebration Service in Richmond BC March 13th, 2005

1c) http://www.acicanada.ca/ www.emmanuelvoice.org March 13th Sunday 5pm Celebration Service with Bishop TJ Johnston

Location: Richmond Emmanuel Church, 7451 Elmbridge Way (off Westminster& No 3 Rd)

Theme: Transformed for Mission


Please join us and bring your friends

Information Meeting with Bishop Johnston in Victoria BC

NOTICE OF INFORMATION MEETING

Anglican Communion in Canada
http://acicanada.ca

Date: March 7, 2005

Time: 7:30 p.m.

Place: Jewish Community Centre,
3636 Shelbourne Street, Victoria, B.C.


On March 7, 2005 at 7:30 p.m. Bishop Thomas Johnston from Arkansas, U.S.A., will speak and answer questions in regard to his oversight of the Anglican Communion in Canada. Rev. Paul Carter from Vancouver, the ACiC Network Leader for Canada, will accompany Bishop Johnston and his wife, Rees, on their visit to Victoria.

An offering will be received to pay for the expenses of the meeting.

March 1st St David of Wales

St. David
(DEGUI, DEWI).
Bishop and Confessor, patron of Wales. He is usually represented standing on a little hill, with a dove on his shoulder. From time immemorial the Welsh have worn a leek on St. David's day, in memory of a battle against the Saxons, at which it is said they wore leeks in their hats, by St. David's advice, to distinguish them from their enemies. He is commemorated on 1 March. The earliest mention of St. David is found in a tenth-century manuscript Of the "Annales Cambriae", which assigns his death to A.D. 601. Many other writers, from Geoffrey of Monmouth down to Father Richard Stanton, hold that he died about 544, but their opinion is based solely on data given in various late "lives" of St. David, and there seems no good reason for setting aside the definite statement of the "Annales Cambriae", which is now generally accepted. Little else that can claim to be historical is known about St. David. The tradition that he was born at Henvynyw (Vetus-Menevia) in Cardiganshire is not improbable. He was prominent at the Synod of Brevi (Llandewi Brefi in Cardiganshire), which has been identified with the important Roman military station, Loventium. Shortly afterwards, in 569, he presided over another synod held at a place called Lucus Victoriae. He was Bishop (probably not Archbishop) of Menevia, the Roman port Menapia in Pembrokeshire, later known as St. David's, then the chief point of departure for Ireland. St. David was canonized by Pope Callistus II in the year 1120.
This is all that is known to history about the patron of Wales. His legend, however, is much more elaborate, and entirely unreliable. The first biography that has come down to us was written near the end of the eleventh century, about 500 years after the saint's death, by Rhygyfarch (Ricemarchus), a son of the then bishop of St. David's, and is chiefly a tissue of inventions intended to support the claim of the Welsh episcopate to be independent of Canterbury. Giraldus Cambriensis, William of Malmesbury, Geoffrey of Monmouth, John de Tinmouth, and John Capgrave all simply copy and enlarge upon the work of Rhygyfarch, whilst the anonymous author of the late Welsh life printed in Rees, "Cambro-British Saints" (Cott. MS. Titus, D. XXII) adds nothing of value. According to these writers St. David was the son of Sant or Sandde ab Ceredig ab Cunnedda, Prince of Keretica (Cardiganshire) and said by some to be King Arthur's nephew, though Geoffrey of Monmouth calls St. David King Arthur's uncle. The saint's mother was Nonna, or Nonnita (sometimes called Melaria), a daughter of Gynyr of Caergawch. She was a nun who had been violated by Sant. St. David's birth had been foretold thirty years before by an angel to St. Patrick. It took place at "Old Menevia" somewhere about A.D. 454. Prodigies preceded and accompanied the event, and at his baptism at Porth Clais by St. Elvis of Munster, "whom Divine Providence brought over from Ireland at that conjuncture", a blind man was cured by the baptismal water. St. David's early education was received from St. Illtyd at Caerworgorn (Lanwit major) in Glamorganshire. Afterwards he spent ten years studying the Holy Scriptures at Witland in Carmarthenshire, under St. Paulinus, (Pawl Hen), whom he cured of blindness by the sign of the cross. At the end of this period St. Paulinus, warned by an agnel, sent out the young saint to evangelize the British. St. David journeyed throughout the West, founding or restoring twelve monasteries (among which occur the great names of Glastonbury, Bath, and Leominster), and finally settled in the Vale of Ross, where he and his monks lived a life of extreme austerity. Here occurred the temptations of his monks by the obscene antics of the maid-servants of the wife of Boia, a local chieftan. Here also his monks tried to poison him, but St. David, warned by St. Scuthyn, who crossed from Ireland in one night on the back of a sea-monster, blessed the poisoned bread and ate it without harm. From thence, with St. Teilo and St. Padarn, he set out for Jerusalem, where he was made bishop by the patriarch. Here too St. Dubric and St. Daniel found him, when they came to call him to the Synod of Brevi "against the Pelagians". St. David was with difficulty persuaded to accompany them; on his way he raised a widow's son to life, and at the synod preached so loudly, from the hill that miraculously rose under him, that all could hear him, and so eloquently that all the heretics were confounded. St. Dubric resigned the "Archbishopric of Caerleon", and St. David was appointed in his stead. One of his first acts was to hold, in the year 569, yet another synod called "Victory", against the Pelagians, of which the decrees were confirmed by the pope. With the permission of King Arthur he removed his see from Caerleon to Menevia, whence he governed the British Church for many years with great holiness and wisdom. He died a the great age of 147, on the day predicted by himself a week earlier. His body is said to have been translated to Glastonbury in the year 966.
It is impossible to discover in this story how much, if any, is true. Some of it has obviously been invented for controversial purposes. The twelve monasteries, the temptation by the women, the attempt on his life, all suggest an imitation of the life of St. Benedict. Wilder legends, such as the Journey on the Sea-Monster, are commonplaces of Celtic hagiography. Doubtless Rhygyfarch and his imitators collected many floating local traditions, but how much of these had any historical foundation and how much was sheer imagination is no longer possible to decide. -->

St Chad, Bishop of York and Lichfield

St. Ceadda
(Commonly known as ST. CHAD.)
Abbot of Lastingham, Bishop successively of York and Lichfield, England; date of birth uncertain, died 672.
He is often confounded with his brother, St. Cedd, also Abbot of Lastingham and the Bishop of the East Saxons. He had two other brothers, Cynibill and Caelin, who also became priests. Probably Northumbrian by birth, he was educated at Lindisfarne under St. Aidan, but afterwards went to Ireland, where he studied with St. Ecgberht in the monastery of Rathmelsige (Melfont). There he returned to help his brother St. Cedd to establish the monastery of Laestingaeu, now Lastingham in Yorkshire. On his brother's death in 664, he succeeded him as abbot.
Shortly afterwards St. Wilfrid, who had been chosen to succeed Tudi, Bishop of Lindisfarne, went to Gaul for consecration and remained so long absent that King Oswiu determined to wait no longer, and procured the election of Chad as Bishop of York, to which place the Bishopric of Lindisfarne had been transferred. As Canterbury was vacant, he was consecrated by Wini of Worcester, assisted by two British bishops. As bishop he visited his diocese on foot, and laboured in an apostolic spirit until the arrival of St. Theodore, the newly elected Archbishop of Canterbury who was making a general visitation. St. Theodore decided that St. Chad must give up the diocese to St. Wilfrid, who had now returned. When he further intimated that St. Chad's episcopal consecration had not been rightly performed, the Saint replied, "If you decide that I have not rightly received the episcopal character, I willingly lay down the office; for I have never thought myself worthy of it, but under obedience, I, though unworthy, consented to undertake it". St. Theodore, however, desired him not to relinquish the episcopate and himself supplied what was lacking ("ipse ordinationem ejus denuo catholica ratione consummavit" -- Bede, Hist. Eccl. IV, 2). Ceadda then returned to Lastingham, where he remained till St. Theodore called him in 669 to become Bishop of the Mercians. He built a church and monastery at Lichfield, where he dwelt with seven or eight monks, devoting to prayer and study time he could spare from his work as bishop. He received warning of his death in a vision.
His shrine, which was honoured by miracles, was removed in the twelfth century to the cathedral at Lichfield, dedicated to Our Lady and the Saint himself. At the Reformation his relics were rescued from profanation by Catholics, and they now lie in the Catholic cathedral at Birmingham, which is dedicated to him. His festival is kept on the 2nd of March. All accounts of his life are based on that given by Venerable Bede, who had been instructed in Holy Scripture by Trumberct, one of St. Chad's monks and disciples. -->