5. THE GOSPELS: HISTORICAL, RELIABLE & TRUE?

APPETIZER: "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 synthesized 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." (CCC#126)

MAIN COURSE: Since our faith as Christians rests totally upon the Person of Jesus Christ as Son of God and Savior, it only makes sense that the next entree we put on our Bitesize Catechism plate is a look at the Gospels. Why?  Because we need to sample the Gospels and look at their ingredients, as well as consider the literary chefs who created them.  This is vital for both the serious Christians ands well as the curious inquirer.  The gospels are how we come to know the story of Jesus. How he became human and why; how he died on the cross and rose from the dead in order to offer each one of us the possibility of eternal life. In addition to this, Christianity is a demanding religion and it is not always a popular religion, especially in these times. In order to be strong and confident in the faith that comes to us from the Apostles we MUST know, we NEED to know: Are the gospels historical? Are the gospels true or fabricated stories?  Are the gospels reliable sources of information?

The Gospels did not just originate out of a vacuum. They have came into existence as the third of three stages in early Christianity:

1. First, of course, came the actual preaching, teaching, miracles and deeds of Jesus. This was witnesses by the Twelve Apostles and countless disciples. Information from the early life of Jesus came to us from the Blessed Mother and perhaps Jesus' relatives. We date this stage from about 1-33AD.

2. Next came the era of the Apostles and other disciples preaching the Gospel, that is, the good news  about Jesus, throughout the known world. They were commissioned for this task by Jesus himself at the Ascension (see Mt 28:19-20, Mk 16:15-16, Lk 24:45-49, Acts 1:8) and spiritually empowered for this ministry by the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The persecution of the early Christians in Jerusalem became the impetus for them to disperse into other parts of the Roman Empire and other lands to spread the Gospel.

3. As the persecutions increased throughout the Empire and the Apostles began to die, tradition tells us that the Christians asked them to write down their memories of the experiences and teachings of Jesus. St. James the Greater was the first Apostle to  be martyred.  He was beheaded on orders of King Herod in Jerusalem in the year 44AD.  As the years passed the Apostles Matthew and John wrote their Gospels.  The disciples Mark and Luke wrote Gospels as well, based on the memories and stories of the Apostles and others who knew Jesus. And thus we received the four gospels which we still read and venerate today.

It's important to know that the Gospels are reliable historical documents.  From the point of view of seeing them as historical literature and not religious revelation, the gospels are considered extremely accurate and reliable sources by experts in the fields of history, archaeology, and literature. It is not the focus of this Bitesize Catechism to go into their academic reasons and details, but these can easily be found by online. These experts can only assure us that the Gospels are indeed historical documents written from the 1st century. They cannot of course bring us to faith in them as sources of divine revelation or as being part of the inspired Word of God. But with scholarly expert assurance in mind, let's take a closer look at the Gospels.

First, let's look at the word Gospel.  We need to know that the original gospels were written in Greek which as the most common language of the people. Gospel is a translation of the Greek word euangelion which means "good news".  It was not just a religious term but a general vocabulary word in those days. For example, if someone had a baby or got a job promotion, you might go to your friends and tell them that you had euangelion for them. The euangelion about Jesus is that he is the Son of God come in the flesh, not to condemn us, but to save us and lead us to eternal life. Eventually the books containing this euangelion became known as the Euangelions or Gospels.  And those who wrote the euangelion became known as evangelists (gospel writers).

Who wrote the Gospels? This is a question that many have asked and it's an extremely important question! Over the past 100 years or so,  intellectuals and academics began to look down upon those who believed in supernatural realities, it became vogue and popular for scholars to deny that the companions and eye-witnesses to Jesus wrote the Gospels. But this is not the authentic position of the ancient Church. We have testimony from the year 125AD (that's just about 25 years after the death of the last surviving Apostle, St. John) that the four Gospel authors were the Apostle Matthew (a converted tax collector), the disciple St. Mark (companion of St Peter), the disciple St. Luke (companion of St. Paul), and the Apostle St. John (the Beloved Disciple of Jesus).  Further ancient documents from 170-200AD confirm these men as the inspiration behind the Gospels.  Now, it does't mean that they are necessarily the ones who actually took up a pen (or I guess a quill) in hand and wrote things down on parchment.  This may have been done by scribes or by disciples who wrote what these men taught and preached.  But it does mean that, as the Church officially teaches, the gospels hand on to us what Jesus really said and did when he lived on earth.

Each of the four evangelists tell the Good News in their own way. Each one wrote down the memories, stories and sayings of Jesus is ways that they remembered, as well as in ways that were meaningful and applicable to their particular audience. Thus, we have in the four Gospels slightly different descriptions and memories of the same events.  But this is very common for us human beings.  If some time after an event you hosted you asked all your guests to wrote down their memories of what was said and done, you would get quite a few different answers. Yet all would fundamentally agree on the same basic things. This is true about the Gospels as well.  And actually, the fact that they do not all tell the exact same story with the exact same words is actually strong proof for the authenticity of their reporting according to the experts we mentioned above.  It shows that the Apostles did not have a prefabricated story and party line for all to follow!   So, let's take a quick bird's eye view  of each Gospel and see what it's particular evangelist waned to stress about Jesus and his good news.

The Gospel According to St. Matthew was written by Levi (also called Matthew) the apostle who had been a tax collector. around 50-70AD.  His gospel is heavily "Jewish" in its style and vocabulary because he was telling the good news about Jesus to Hebrew Christians and Jewish inquirers. So he has a lot of quotations from and references to the Old Testament in his gospel.  He shows Jesus as the King and Messiah of Israel in whom God's promises to his people are fulfilled. It is in Matthew's gospel that we find the Sermon on the Mount and also the "Our Father" in pretty much the same words we still use today. It is also in this gospel that we find the foundation for our belief that Jesus made St. Peter the first leader (pope) of the Church. As one of the Twelve Apostles, he was an eye-witness to the miracles and sayings of Jesus as well as the Resurrection. We do not know for sure how or where St. Matthew died, but there is a strong tradition that he died as a martyr in Ethiopia.

The Gospel According to St. Mark was written in Rome between 50-70AD by a disciple who is known in the New Testament as John-Mark.  He was a cousin of St.Barnabas and for a while also  a missionary companion of St. Paul. Mark eventually went to Rome where he functioned as St. Peter's scribe or secretary.  His Gospel is actually St. Peter's eye-witness memories about Jesus and so you could think of this gospel as one that is "according to St. Peter". This gospel is the shortest and most action-packed of them all, barely recounting the words of Jesus but highlighting miracles and exorcisms that show Jesus as the Powerful Servant and Mighty Son of God. He has this emphasis because the Romans would be most interested in this aspect of power and action.  St. Mark became the Bishop of Alexandria, Egypt and died as a martyr there by being bound with ropes and then dragged through the streets of the city.

The Gospel According to St. Luke is most unique as it was written by an evangelist who was not Jewish by birth. Just as Matthew's Gospel was heavily "Jewish-oriented", so Luke's is quiet "Gentile-oriented".  Luke was a Gentile (non-Jewish) physician, highly educated and his gospel shows these traits. Written around 60AD, it is also unique because it was not written for a particular group or church like the other three. Instead it was composed (along with Luke's Acts of the Apostles) specifically for Theolophilus, who seems to have been a wealthy man since he was able to finance this gospel project. Luke acts like an investigative reporter seeking to interview eye-witnesses and research known writings about Jesus. He presents Jesus as the Mercy of God incarnate, a Savior for all people with special tenderness towards the poor and outcasts.  It is from this gospel that we receive most of the stories of Jesus' conception, birth and childhood which he learned from the Blessed Mother herself.  It is also from Luke that we have some of the most cherished parables of Jesus such as the Prodigal Son,  the Lost Sheep and the Rich Man and Lazarus. He spent much time as a traveling companion and loyal friend of St. Paul and spent the end of his life in Greece where he wrote this longest of the four gospels.

The Gospel According to St. John is totally unlike the other three. Matthew, Mark and Luke all tell pretty much the same general story of Jesus, although each with his own particular slant. But St. John is writing much later than them (perhaps around 90AD) and he is aware that these other gospels are already in circulation.  So he focuses not on the particulars of the life of Jesus but on what they mean. In other words, he is giving us a kind of theological commentary on the life and teachings of Jesus. John himself tells us why he wrote his version of the good news: so that all may believe in Jesus and find eternal life (see John 20:31).  He was the brother, St. James the Greater, and one of the Twelve Apostles, eye-witnesses to Jesus, He was the youngest of them as well.  He was considered Jesus' "best friend" (to put it in our modern terminology) so his nickname in the Scriptures is the "Beloved Disciple".  It is from this gospel that we have the many titles of Jesus that begin with "I am the..." (Bread of Life, Light of the World, Good Shepherd, Way, Truth and Life, etc.). The Gospel According to St. John gives us the miracle of water turned into wine, the raising of Lazarus from the dead, and the washing of feet at the Last Supper.  Records indicate that St. John lived the longest of the Apostles, dying as a non-martyr around 100AD in exile on the island of Patmos (Greece).  He is also credited with writing three Letters in the New Testament as well as the Book of Revelation (Apocalypse).

Since Jesus himself is the fullest and most perfect revelation of God, we honor the Gospels which tell us about him above all other books of Scripture. And since the Gospel is the most important part of the entire Bible, its proclamation at Mass is the greatest part of the Liturgy of the Word. This is why it is usually preceded by the singing of the Alleluia (or other chants in Lent), why the Book of the Gospels is typically elevated for all to see before it is proclaimed, and why we stand out of respect to listen to it. We venerate the Book of the Gospels at mass with special actions. As we prepare to hear the Gospel we make a small Sign of the Cross on our forehead, mouth and chest. This is a wordless body-language prayer asking that the Gospel of Jesus may be in impressed upon our minds, spoken by our lips and cherished in our hearts. At its conclusion, the priest or deacon kisses the page of the Gospel while saying, "Through the words of the Gospel may our sins be wiped away."

It is a great honor as a deacon to be ordained into a special relationship with the Gospel. and thus to become a messenger of divine revelation. At ordination the bishop entrusts the Book of the Gospels to the new deacon who receives the mandate to preach and teach it always and everywhere.  It is the deacon's place and privilege to proclaim the Gospel at every Liturgy no matter what other clergy may be there and even if the pope himself is the presider of the Mass.

DOGGIE BAG: Here are a few things to take away from our study for spiritual snacking throughout the day.

Saint Quote to Ponder: "Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." (St. Jerome, 4th century)

Scripture Verse to Memorize: "Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not recorded here. But these are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." (John 20:30-31)