Why are there 4 Gospels instead of just one?

Answer 1

Answer

Towards the end of the second century, Irenaeus was arguably the most influential bishop in Christianity. He was the first to use the term, "New Testament" and also the first to give the explicit formation of four gospels, and exactly four. In his view the four gospels that he included in his New Testament were authentic writings of the apostles to whom they are attributed, while all other gospels were to be rejected.

Answer 2

There are more than four Gospels that were written but only the existing four made it to The Bible. Other Gospels that did not make it are the Gospels of Mary Magdalene, Gospel of Judas, Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Barnabas, Gospel of Enoch, etc.

Answer 3

There were many reasons for this and they are the following:

1. To give a more complete picture of Christ.
2. To enable us to objectively verify the truthfulness of their accounts.
3. To reward those who are diligent seekers.

Although more detailed and specific reasons would be available, the simplest explanation is that one author wrote the "original" (probably Mark/Matthew). The others are rewrites, intended to shed light on a different theological aspect of the faith they are intended to teach about.

Answer 4

The four gospels were included in the canon of scripture as they were already in circulation across the Empire and deemed the most reliable sources of Jesus' life and ministry. Each of the four gospels was written from a different viewpoint, in a different style, and with slightly different content.

Mark is usually thought of as the first written of the four. In this fast-moving account Mark is concerned primarily with what Jesus did rather than what he said.

Matthew, however, includes many of the sayings and teaching of Jesus, and is the most Jewish of the gospels. In his account he cites many prophecies showing the Jews that Jesus is indeed the long-awaited Messiah.

Luke, the only Gentile writer, was commissioned to write his two accounts (his gospel and the Book of Acts of the Apostles) as a full, systematic, accurate and reliable history of the life and ministry of Jesus and the history of the early Church. Luke, a learned doctor, was concerned with healing miracles and God's forgiveness; in Luke there are many unique parables including the good Samaritan and the Prodical Son, not included in the other gospels. Many scholars now believe that Luke and Matthew used much of Mark's gospel in writing their own, along with a now lost document called 'Q' as well as their own material.

John, however, stands out from the others as a unique document. Little of John's content is found in the other three. Instead, rather than give a history of Jesus' ministry, he tells the story through a series of episodes where the divinity of Jesus is shown in a series of 'signs'. He writes it with one objective; that the reader, by reading his account, may also believe that Jesus is God incarnate.

There are other gospels that were not included in scripture. These included gospels attributed to Thomas, Mary, Barnabbas and so on. However, most of these documents were written much later than events and the other canonical gospels, and were deemed unreliable accounts of Jesus' life and ministry.

After much prayer and debate, some gospels (the four we have) were included as scripture. There were others which were rejected as heretical, written with varying degrees of bias. However, there were some books of the New Testament (eg the Gospel of Thomas, the Didache (a short 'handbook' for the Christian) and the Revelation of John) that were thought of as a 'grey' area. In the end, Thomas was omitted, Revelation was included, and the Didache omitted also, although some Orthodox Bibles do include it.

Contrary to the above, which seems to suggest that Irenaeus was somehow to 'blame' for their being only four gospels, it was actual practice across the empire that only one gospel account was used by a particular church. Most popular of all gospels was that of Matthew, although the Christians of Asia Minor (now Turkey) preferred John. The problem Irenaeus faced was that he believed Christians should be allowed morethan one account, but that these accounts should be valid and reliable, whereas many were not, but were written with a Gnostic or other bias . In his book 'Against Heresies' he was instrumental in ensuring that the canon of scripture was pure and trustworthy. The Gnostics maintained that they possessed a secret oral tradition from Jesus himself, but Irenaeus maintained that the bishops in different cities could trace their lineage back to the apostles themselves, and none of them were Gnostics, so that the bishops provided the only safe guide to the interpretation of Scripture. Irenaeus' own authority? Well, he said he was a pupil of Polycarp, who in turn was a pupile of John himslef, writer of the fourth gospel.

Thus it is because of Irenaeus that we have four accounts that are deemed as trustworthy rather than, say, just one.

Answer 5

Are you asking why does the Bible have 4 Gospel Books or why are there 4 Gospels?

Some have suspected 2 Gospels.

1) The Gospel of the inner 11 Disciples at Jesus side during his ministry on

earth, given to them as witnesses of Jesus as a flesh and blood man.

And Matthias being added as the 12th Apostle after Judas Iscariot died.

Matthias was also witness to the Gospel of Jesus as a man in flesh and

blood coming to the earth.

This Gospel tells of Jesus as a healer of the Blind.

2) The enlightened gospel of Saul/Paul of Tarsus, which he says he received from divine

revelation after claiming to have been witness to Jesus coming as a bright

light. No other witnesses can vouch for Paul. Paul is the only man spoken

of in the New Testament claiming personal witness to Jesus coming to the

earth as a bright light.

This Gospel tells of Jesus as one who Blinds.

Paul became Blind he says after his encounter with the physical bright light Jesus. This is not to be confused with the mention of Jesus in the Gospel of John as the light that came into the world which illuminates the mind and heart and soul of mankind.

REFERENCE SOURCE: Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John)

Book of Acts (Acts of the Apostles)

Answer 6

There are actually many more than four gospels, but the four that now form part of the New Testament were used by the branch of Christianity that was becoming dominant and would decide the contents of the New Testament. It was Irenaeus who insisted on four, and only four, gospels.

Tatian actually wrote or compiled, Teachings of the Apostlesas a synopsis of the Gospels, that might have become the definitive book alongside or even instead of the four Gospels, had Church history worked out differently. This compilation was used for some centuries by the Persian Church.

Answer 7

I think they wrote them for the church and the priest reads them to everyone at the church. They are very important to the priest and church.