Briefing Doc

Executive Summary

The canonical Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John represent the foundational records of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. While they are not modern biographies, they constitute a unique literary genre most akin to ancient biography, written not merely to record history but to proclaim the “good news” of salvation through Jesus. The first three—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—are termed “Synoptic Gospels” due to their similar viewpoints and parallel narratives, which contrast with the distinct theological focus of John’s Gospel.

Each Synoptic Gospel presents a unique “portrait” of Jesus, tailored to a specific audience and purpose: Matthew portrays Jesus as the Messiah-King for a Jewish audience, Mark presents him as the suffering Son of Man for a Roman audience, and Luke depicts him as the Savior for all humanity, especially the marginalized, for a Gentile audience. Despite these differences, they share a common narrative framework, covering key events from the ministry of John the Baptist through the resurrection of Jesus.

The close interrelationship between these three Gospels gives rise to the “Synoptic Problem,” a scholarly inquiry into their literary dependence. The most widely accepted solution is the Two-Document Hypothesis, which posits that Mark was the first Gospel written (Markan priority) and that Matthew and Luke independently used both Mark and a hypothetical sayings source known as “Q” to compose their works. A further refinement, the Four-Document Hypothesis, suggests additional unique sources (“M” and “L”) for Matthew and Luke respectively. These documents are considered historically reliable, having been composed with care while eyewitnesses were still alive and guided by the Holy Spirit.

1. The Genre and Purpose of the Gospels

The “Gospel” as a Literary Form

The English word “Gospel” derives from the Anglo-Saxon “godspell” (“good tidings”), a literal translation of the Greek term “evangelion.” Initially, “evangelion” referred to the message or proclamation of Christ itself. Only after the New Testament period was the word “Gospel” applied to the writings of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, eventually coming to define a unique literary genre.

Scholarly opinion has evolved regarding the classification of this genre. Initially, some viewed the Gospels as common people’s literature, distinct from “high” classical literature. However, most modern scholars now classify them as a form of ancient biography. As Craig S. Keener notes, ancient biographies did not emphasize the same features as modern ones but were still a form of historical writing, with some authors like Tacitus staying very close to their sources. The Gospels are distinct from other contemporary forms such as haggadic midrash. They are a unique form of writing, similar to ancient biography, intended to communicate the writers’ belief that Jesus was the Messiah.

The Purpose of the Gospels

The Gospels were written between 60 and 90 AD, decades after the death and resurrection of Jesus, to preserve the apostolic teaching that had previously been transmitted orally. They are not comprehensive biographies in the modern sense; they report little about Jesus’s childhood, appearance, or inner feelings. Their primary purpose is theological and evangelistic. They were written to:

• Present the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ.
• Assert that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God.
• Encourage Christians to share their faith.
• Proclaim the significance of Jesus to readers.

As Stephen Travis states, readers are meant to ask not only, “‘What is this passage reporting about what happened?’ but also, ‘What does it mean for me and for other people today?'”

2. The Four Portraits of Jesus

While the four Gospels describe the same person, each Evangelist presents Jesus from a distinct perspective, creating what Howard Marshal calls “four Portraits, each bringing out its own characteristic distinctive facets of the character of Jesus.” This was a pragmatic necessity, as different Christian communities had different needs. Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart suggest this was “orchestrated by the Holy Spirit,” ensuring each Gospel stands as equally valuable and authoritative.

The distinct portraits, including traditional symbols as noted by William Barclay, are as follows:

3. The Synoptic Gospels: Commonality and Content

Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called “Synoptic” Gospels because they present a similar view (“syn” meaning same, “optic” meaning view) of the life of Jesus. Their content shows significant overlap. F.F. Bruce notes that of Mark’s 661 verses, 506 are found in Matthew and 380 are in Luke; only 31 verses in Mark have no parallel in the other two.

Shared Narrative Events

All three Synoptic Gospels record a common sequence of major events in Jesus’s life and ministry:

• Forerunner: The ministry of John the Baptist.
• Commencement: Jesus’s Baptism and subsequent Temptation in the Wilderness.
• Ministry: His public ministry in Galilee, including discourses, parables, and miracles.
• Discipleship: The choosing of the Twelve Disciples.
• Revelation: The Transfiguration.
• Passion Prediction: Jesus announcing his coming suffering and death.
• Climax: His final journey to Jerusalem, the Triumphal Entry, the Last Supper, betrayal, trial, Crucifixion, burial, and Resurrection.

They share a common starting point for Jesus’s public ministry: the imprisonment of John the Baptist (Matthew 4:12, Mark 1:14, Luke 3:20).

Common Teaching Methods

Two common aspects of Jesus’s ministry as related by the Synoptics are his use of parables and miracles. While John’s Gospel focuses on discourses, the Synoptics feature Jesus’s public teaching primarily through parables. Similarly, they portray Jesus as a miracle worker, performing healing miracles, exorcisms, raising the dead, and nature miracles. Graham Scroggie concisely summarized this relationship: “Jesus’ parables were miracles in words and his miracles were parables in deeds.”

4. The Synoptic Problem: Explaining the Interrelationship

The extensive similarities in content, structure, and even exact wording among the Synoptic Gospels, alongside their notable differences, create what is known as the “Synoptic Problem.” This scholarly challenge seeks to answer questions about their relationship: Which Gospel came first? Did the writers copy from each other? What sources did they use? The study of these questions is called “Source Criticism.”

Major Proposed Solutions

Several theories have been advanced to explain the Synoptic relationship.

1. Theory of Oral Tradition: This is the oldest theory, assuming the Gospels derive from a consistent and organized oral tradition of apostolic preaching. As the message about Jesus was repeatedly preached, it would have crystallized into a fixed form, explaining the similarities. The writings of early Church Fathers like Papias and Irenaeus support the idea that the Gospels were written reproductions of apostolic preaching.

2. Documentary Hypotheses: This is the most widely accepted solution today, proposing that the Gospels used common written sources.

• Markan Priority: Most scholars believe Mark was the first Gospel written. Leon Morris provides several reasons for this view: the “greater freshness of Mark,” the fact that Mark’s narrative order is generally followed by either Matthew or Luke, and that Mark is often longer in the specific narratives it shares with Matthew, which is inconsistent with it being an abbreviation.
• The Two-Document Hypothesis: This theory posits that Matthew and Luke independently used two primary sources: the Gospel of Mark and a now-lost document of Jesus’s sayings, designated “Q” (from the German Quelle, meaning “source”).
• The Four-Document Hypothesis: A refinement proposed by Burnett Streeter, this theory adds two more sources to account for material unique to Matthew and Luke. It suggests the writers used Mark, Q, and their own private sources, referred to as “M” (for Matthew’s special material) and “L” (for Luke’s special material).

5. Historical Reliability and Critical Methods

The Gospels as Historical Sources

For all practical purposes, the Gospels are the primary source of knowledge about the life of Jesus. External sources offer little detail.

• Roman Historians: The Roman historian Tacitus briefly mentions Jesus only to explain the name of the “Christians” executed by Nero.
• Jewish Historians: The first-century Jewish historian Josephus refers to Jesus as a miracle-worker believed to be the Messiah who was put to death by Pilate and reappeared to his disciples.
• Rabbinic Traditions: These traditions preserve a hostile view, stating Jesus practiced magic, beguiled the people, and was executed for heresy.

The Gospel writers are presented as careful authors who endeavored to be accurate. Luke, for example, explicitly claims to have made a careful investigation of the facts (Luke 1:1-3). The first Gospels were written when eyewitnesses were still in positions of authority in the churches, allowing oral traditions to be checked and supporting their reliability.

Other Critical Methodologies

Beyond Source Criticism, other methods analyze the Gospels’ formation:

• Form Criticism (Formgeschichte): This school contends that the Gospels were compiled from smaller, independent anecdotes and teachings (e.g., miracle stories, epigrams) that circulated orally before being collected into a narrative framework.
• Redaction Criticism (Redaktiongeschichte): This method views the Gospel writers not just as compilers but as creative authors or “redactors” who shaped, edited, and arranged traditional materials to present a specific historical-theological view of Jesus’s life and teachings according to their distinctive purpose.

6. Canonical Significance

The Christian church has regarded the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as canonical from its earliest history. Early figures like Tatian (c. 170 AD) and Irenaeus (c. 180 AD) affirmed the authority of these four exclusively, defending them against numerous apocryphal gospels that were of later date, doubtful reliability, and often promoted sectarian views. Irenaeus argued vigorously for the “fourfold” nature of the Gospel, stating, “It is not possible that the Gospels can be either more or fewer in number than they are.” Their immediate acceptance into the New Testament Canon reflects the belief that they were accurate, reliable, and inspired by the Holy Spirit.