Why were the Gospels developed?

Answer 1

Since Mark's Gospel was the earliest gospel to be written, the answer to this question, if it can be determined, is largely answered by giving the reasons for writing Mark's Gospel. Even conservative Christians acknowledge that Mark was not written by an eyewitness, so the reason was not to record what the disciples had seen and heard. Moreover, by waiting until around 70 CE, some forty years after the death of Jesus, the author had seen no urgency in writing a gospel.

The date of writing could provide a clue about the reason. The year 70 was the year that the Romans overran Jerusalem at the end of the disastrous Roman-Jewish War. It is possible that everyone associated with Judaism now felt under threat.

1. Mark's Gospel might have been written to assure the Romans that Christianity was not a strange or new superstition, but was a religion grounded in traditional Judaism.
2. It might also have been written to explain Christian beliefs to the Jewish authorities and by showing that Christianity was simply based on a holy man who had lived in the Jewish milieu, obtain their support against the Romans.
3. Just before the story of the crucifixion, Mark has Jesus prophesy the destruction of the great buildings and the end of the world, with Jesus returning in clouds of glory within the lifetimes of his own generation. If the author of Mark believed this to be true, he might have written the Gospel in order to forewarn other Christians of the events about to happen.

Matthew's Gospel and Luke's Gospel were written anonymously some decades after Mark's Gospel, using Mark as their source of information about the life and mission of Jesus. Since both authors had copies of Mark, there must have been compelling reasons for each to write a new gospel rather than simply copying the Gospel of Mark. It is possible that the credibility of Mark was being challenged and each author responded in his own way. Matthew wrote a Gospel that used the Old Testament extensively to prove the deep roots that Christianity had in Judaism, providing numerous instances in which he said that the Old Testament authors had prophesied or foreshadowed events in the gospel. Luke wrote a Gospel that sought to link events in the gospel account to historical events, thus increasing their credibility.

John's Gospel is believed to have been written in a community with Gnostic Christian tendencies. The author needed to prove that Jesus was both divine and pre-existing, claims that the earlier evangelists had not made. It was also a political document of sorts, and seems intended to counter the influences of the disciples Thomas and Peter.