Do the four Gospels present the life and teachings of Jesus?

Answer 1

Opinion

Yes, the Gospels do harmonize in their accounts. The variations that exist are because of different eyewitness impressions and recollections, the different focus of each Gospel writer, and whether the events are arranged thematically or chronologically. None of these amount to contradictions on the basic doctrines and facts of Jesus' life or teachings.

Answer 2

Yes, from four different perspectives.

(Matthew 1:1 KJV) ". . The book of the generation of Jesus Christ..."

(Mark 1:1 ASV) 1 "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God...."

(Luke 1:3-4 NAS) ". . .it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order....so that you may know the exact truth ..."

(John 1:14 ASV) ". . .And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth.."

Answer 3

The simple answer is that the gospels do tell us about the life of Jesus; that is their purpose.

However, the four gospels are so contradictory that at least some of the stories can not be true. For example, did Mary and Joseph flee to Egypt after the birth of Jesus, only returning to Bethlehem after the death of Herod, but were warned in a dream to turn aside and travel to Nazareth instead? Or was Nazareth the home town of Mary and Joseph, and did they return peacefully from Bethlehem to Nazareth shortly after his birth? Bishop Spong calls this Christian midrash. Each of the stories of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus is so inconsistent with the other that, at most, only one could be true, and probably none of them is.

Many of the sayings attributed to Jesus are believed to have been sourced from the hypothetical 'Q' document. The 'Q' document was written over time, in four distinct layers. At most, only the sayings of the first layer could plausibly be considered to have been said by Jesus.

The gospels tell us an idealised life of Jesus.

Answer 4

Scholars say that Mark's Gospel was the first gospel, and that the authors of Matthew and Luke copied most of the verses from Mark into their own accounts, preserving the order of the text and almost exactly the same wording in the original Greek language. For example, Matthew contains about 600 of the 666 verses in Mark. However there are two sections missing in Luke, most importantly the "Missing Block", or "Great Omission". The Missing Block is thought to correspond to exactly 13 pages of Greek text that had been removed from the copy of Mark's Gospel that the author of Luke was using as his text. Thus Luke does not contain the important miracle of Jesus walking on water, as well as some other important material.

The material that the authors of Matthew and Lukedid copy from Mark provides a basis of agreement among the synoptic gospels. Matthew and Luke also contain material in common but not found in Mark, believed to have been copied from the hypothetical 'Q' document.

John's Gospel was inspired by Luke's Gospel, with a smaller amount of material copied direct from Mark's Gospel. However, this author felt somewhat less obliged to retain exactly what he found in his source documents, changing many details and chronological orders. Since John is based on Luke, it contains some material in common with Luke, but not found in Mark or Matthew.

The four gospels agree that Jesus came from Nazareth and was baptised by John the Baptist, although John's Gospel does not explicitly say that Jesus was baptised.

He called twelve disciples to follow him and preached in Galilee and Jerusalem. There is some disagreement about the names of the disciples, but later Christians have more or less harmonised the accounts.

Jesus fed the five thousand.

He rode into Jerusalem for the final Passover before his death. In Mark, Luke and John, Jesus rode a colt or young ass into Jerusalem. In Matthew, Jesus rode both an ass and a colt, apparently at the same time.

In the Temple, Jesus overturned the tables of the moneychangers. In the synoptic gospels, this occurred right at the end of the mission of Jesus, but it occured at the beginning of the mission of Jesus in John.

In the evening, he went to the Garden of Gethsemene to pray and was betrayed by Judas Iscariot. The next morning, he was tried by the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, and then crucified. Joseph of Arimathea took the body and had it buried in his own selpuchre.

After the Sabbath, Jesus had risen. Each gospel contains a different account of how the tomb was found to be empty, as well as when and where Jesus appeared to the women and to the disciples. Mark originally ended at verse 16:8, with the young man telling the women that Jesus was risen and they fled in terror telling no one; the "Long Ending" (verses 16:9-25) was added much later to more or less harmonise Mark with Matthew and Luke.

The gospels all agree that John the Baptist was imprisoned and beheaded early in the mission of Jesus, although the first-century Jewish historian, Josephus places the death of John elsewhere and well after the death of Jesus.

Answer 5

Another answer from our community:

Yes. There is a 'harmony of the Gospels', and this is made clear by the comparisons between the four Gospels, and often printed and written down in the backs of many Bibles as - "A Harmony of the Gospels".

Answer 6

The Gospels According to Matthew, Mark and Luke are known as the synoptic gospels because they agree moderately well on the life and teachings of Jesus. This is because it can be established that Matthew and Luke were based on Mark as their principal source. Matthew and Luke also used a further common source of material about the teachings of Jesus, now known as the 'Q' Source. However, Matthew and Lukeplaced these teachings in quite different times and contexts, since 'Q' does not tell where or when Jesus uttered these sayings. Matthew and Luke also disagree completely on the birth and genealogy of Jesus, while all the Gospels disagreed on the resurrection details (Mark did not originally have an account of the resurrection appearances at all - the "long ending" was added later).

John does not agree quite as well on the life and teachings of Jesus, because it was further removed from the original source material in Mark. The discrepancies have puzzled Christian leaders down through the ages. Origen (Commentary on John), in defending John's Gospel, said "although he does not always tell the truth literally, he always tells it spiritually."

Answer 7

Selectively, yes. If we take those passages that are in harmony and ignore those that are not, then we do see some similarities in the stories. After all, biblical scholars do say that John's Gospel was loosely based on Luke's Gospel, one of the synoptics, and to this extent there is agreement between John and the synoptic gospels.