The Nature and Development of the Four Gospels

When first looking at the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, it is easy to see them as something only to be memorized in Sunday school or as simple biographies of Jesus. However, if we take time to meditate on how the Gospels work together, we can see they are much more. The Gospels are related closely to one another in nature and development even though the book of Mark has some unique aspects.

The nature of the Gospels is such that they do hold biographical facts about Jesus, but the message is bigger than just that. Although Justin Martyr first described the Gospels as “memoirs” in AD155 (Elwell & Yarbrough, 2013, p. 56), Elwell and Yarbrough (2013) put it nicely when they say, “The message that Jesus is the Lord who died and rose again for our salvation is the heart of the Gospel but not the whole of it” (p. 54). And these books contain a much more profound story than first glance allows us to believe.

The message of the Gospels “…includes the lordship of Jesus; the ministry of John the Baptist; the life of Jesus in Galilee; Jesus’ power, miracles, healings, and exorcisms; the death of Jesus by crucifixion and his resurrection; his appearances to the believers in full bodily form after his death; the command to preach forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ; and the assertion that the Old Testament prophecies pointed to all these things…” (Elwell & Yarbrough, 2013, p. 55)

Looking at this list of all the aspects of Jesus and what he means to us as a people makes it utterly impossible to deny the fact that the nature of the Gospels aims to show us much more than a biography. When the apostles started developing the Gospels, it was passed down by them orally from first-hand accounts of time with Jesus. However, word of mouth quickly became inadequate by itself due to how fast the message spread. “No doubt at first the Gospel was shared by simply recounting it; the people who heard remembered it. But as time went on and the good news spread beyond the borders of Palestine to Cyprus, Syria, and Asia Minor, something more needed to be done” (Elwell & Yarbrough, 2013, p. 55). These written Gospels gave believers something to study and memorize so Christ could become part of who they are, explain to people why Christians believe the way they do, and help the message of Jesus live on after the apostles passed away and took their first-hand experiences with them forever (Elwell & Yarbrough, 2013, pp. 55-57). All these years later, we still have the written Gospels, and in many forms and versions, due to the necessity of the development of the written works that began over 2,000 years ago.

The Gospel of Mark, while it contains the same nature and similar development, has unique aspects to it. One very noticeable difference is the length: while Matthew has 28 chapters, Luke has 24, and the Gospel of John has 21, Mark has only 16 chapters. It is much more concise than the other three. However, Elwell and Yarbrough (2013) claim it may be the most vivid and exciting of the Gospels (p. 74). A good example of this is how Mark starts his Gospel. Rather than start with the lineage of Jesus, he starts right away with John the Baptist’s ministry and Jesus being baptized and beginning his ministry, a much more captivating scene. In Chapter 1:10 Mark beautifully describes Heaven being opened and descending like a dove (New International Version). Mark was also going for accuracy, not chronological “order”, and he emphasized the death and resurrection of Jesus (Elwell & Yarbrough, pp. 75-79). While holding strongly to the overall message of Jesus and using first-hand accounts in his development, Mark made his Gospel powerful, efficient, and just as beautiful as the other three.

After taking a closer look at all the Gospels contain in their message and how they developed, we can certainly see it is much more than a biography. While Mark’s Gospel does hold unique aspects, they all hold to the nature of the profound teachings they wish to portray.

Reference

Elwell, Walter A. & Yarbrough, Robert W. (2013). Encountering the New Testament: A historical and theological survey. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.