Why do the gospels present four different portraits of Jesus?

Answer 1

Conservative Christians say that each evangelist wrote to a different audience, emphasising different aspects of Jesus' ministry for that particular audience. For example, they say that Matthew's Gospel was written for a Jewish audience. Modern scholars place less emphasis on differences in communities, but agree that this was a secondary reason for the four gospels.

Scholars also say that Matthew's Gospel could not have been written for Palestinian Jews, who would have realised quite quickly that its use of the Old Testament was from the Septuagint, a flawed early Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures, and not from the original Hebrew text at all. It could have been written for Greek-speaking Jews of the diaspora or for "God-fearers" - Gentiles who were willing to accept the Hebrew scriptures, but knew little about their real meaning.

The Gospels are the four accounts written by or collated from eyewitness accounts of the life of Jesus. Each had been present at different events or recalled different aspects of the same event. Presented together, the Gospels present a well-rounded harmonious account of Christ's teachings, miracles, death, and resurrection.

Answer 2

Another answer from our community:They form a 4 fold image that gives a full composite image of what Christ was like during His earthly ministry. Matthew focused on Christ presented as the Jewish Messiah, Mark focused on presenting Christ as the servant, Luke Presented Christ as the "the son of man", showing how Christ was God in the flesh, showing Christ as all man, human, and yet still God during His earthly ministry, John focuses on presenting Jesus Christ as The Son Of God, his divine God nature.

Answer 3

Another answer from our community:

If we only had one Gospel we would only see one portrait of Jesus. But thank God He gave us four Gospels to expand our knowledge of Him and His Son Jesus Christ. We get a slightly different view at times from the four Gospels which is a big benefit. Christians believe The Bible is inspired by God. We know that John and Matthew were eye witness to most of the things in the Gospels. By being eyewitnesses they put down what they saw with their eyes and with the truthfulness and aid of God giving them what to write. Mark and Luke were not eye witnesses with the exception of possibly Mark 14:51-52( Mark speaking of himself). Mark and Luke put down on paper what they were given truthfully by eye witnesses and by the direction of God.

Answer 4

The traditional view is that the four New Testament gospels present four different accounts of Jesus because each is based the different personal experiences of the author himself or those of an apostle who taught the author. On this view, the Gospels of Matthew and John were written by the disciples Matthew and John and differ to the extent of their different experiences and priorities. However, much of what is written could not have been experienced by any of the disciples, which raises a concern for this explanation. For example, the discrepancies in the gospel accounts of the empty tomb prompted Archbishop Peter Carnley to write: "The presence of discrepancies might be a sign of historicity if we had four clearly independent but slightly different versions of the story, if only for the reason that four witnesses are better than one. But, of course, it is now impossible to argue that what we have in the four gospel accounts of the empty tomb are four contemporaneous but independent accounts of the one event. Modern redactional studies of the traditions account for the discrepancies as literary developments at the hand of later redactors of what was originally one report of the empty tomb...

There is no suggestion that the tomb was discovered by different witnesses on four different occasions, so it is in fact impossible to argue that the discrepancies were introduced by different witnesses of the one event; rather, they can be explained as four different redactions for apologetic and kerygmatic reasons of a single story originating from one source."
So, at least some of the gospel account must have come from one original source. New Testament scholars say that this one original source was Mark's Gospel. All the New Testament gospels were originally anonymous until attributed to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John later in the second century. Scholars say those attributions are unlikely to be correct and have established that Matthewand Luke were substantially based on Mark's Gospel, with John in turn loosely based on Luke. They also say that Matthew and Luke use a secondary source, the hypothetical 'Q' document, for sayings material attributed to Jesus. Each of the later three gospels also adds further material unique to that gospel and for which the source, if any, is unknown.

If Mark was the source for the other three gospels, we ought to attempt to establish how close Mark's account is to the life of Jesus. A good way to examine Mark is to look at its framework, parallel structure: A . John explains the coming of Jesus(Mark 1:1-8)

B .The baptism of Jesus (1:9)

C . The voice of God from heaven, "Thou art my beloved son" (1:11)

D . The forty days in the wilderness as an allusion to Elijah and Moses (1:13)

E . The people were astonished at what Jesus taught (1:22)

F . Jesus casts out an unclean spirit (1:23-26)

G . Pharisees took counsel with the Herodians how they might destroy Jesus (3:6)

H . Demons, whenever they see Jesus, fall down and say that he is the Son of God.

-- Jesus commands that they tell no one of this (3:11-12)

I .. Jesus calls the 12 disciples (3:13-19)

J .. Jesus rejects his own family: he has a new family, his followers (3:31-35)

K . Jesus rebukes the wind (4:36-41)

L . The demoniac, wearing no clothes (5:15), cries out that Jesus not torment him and Jesus sends out the demons (5:1-20)

M . Jesus comes into his own country (6:1)
-- Where he was brought up

N . The people misunderstand Jesus and he can do no mighty work (6:2-6)

O . Jesus sends out the disciples and curses those who will not receive them (6:7-11)
-- in sending the disciples with authority and expecting all to receive them, Jesus is asserting his own authority

P . Herod thinks that Jesus is John the Baptist risen from the dead (6:14)

Q . Herodias and her daughter conspire to kill John the Baptist (6:16-29)

R . Feeding the thousands, and related miracles and discourses (6:33-8:21)

S . Who do people say that I am (8:27)

T . Peter affirms faith in Jesus as the Christ (8:29)

U . Whosoever shall be ashamed of me: of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed (8:38)

V . The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and scribes (8:31a)

W . Be killed and after three days rise again (8:31b)

X . Prophecy of second coming (9:1)- Jesus tells the disciples that some of them would not taste death until they saw the kingdom of God coming with power.

B' .The Transfiguration of Jesus (9:2-3)

C' .The voice of God from heaven, "This is my beloved son" (9:7)

D' . Jesus talks to Elijah and Moses then to the disciples about Elijah (9:4-13)

E' .A great multitude was amazed at Jesus (9:15)

F' .Jesus cast out a dumb spirit (9:17-27)

G' .They shall kill the Son of man and he shall rise on the third day (9:31)

H' .Jesus clarifies his divine status, saying that he is not God: "Why call me good? There is none good but God" (10:18)

I' . Peter says the disciples have left all and followed Jesus (10:28)

J' . Those who have left their family for Jesus have a new family: all Jesus' followers (10:29-30)

K'. Jesus rebukes the 'sons of thunder', James and John (10:35-45 - cf 3:17)

L' .Blind Bartimaeus cries out for mercy and casts off his clothes, then Jesus heals him (10:46-52)

M' .Jesus comes into Jerusalem (11:1-10)
-- Where he will die

N' .Jesus misunderstands the fig tree that can provide no fruit (11:13-14)

O' .Jesus casts out them that sold and bought in the Temple and curses them for making the Temple a den of thieves (11:15-17)
-- Jesus is asserting his authority

P' .Jesus asks whether the baptism of John is from heaven or of men, and the priests, scribes and elders can not answer (11:30-33)

Q' .Parable of husbandmen who conspire to kill the vineyard owner's son (12:1-9)

X' .Prophecy of second coming (chapter 13)

-- on clouds of glory, within the lifetimes of some of those to whom he was speaking

R' .The Last Supper (14:17-25)

S' .Art thou the Christ, Son of God (14:61)

T' .Peter denies Jesus three times (14:66-72a)

U' .And when he thought thereon, Peter wept (14:72b)

V' .The chief priests, elders and scribes delivered Jesus to Pontius Pilate (15:1)

-- Delivering Jesus is a similar concept to rejecting him.
-- Both parts of the pair involve chief priests, elders and scribes

W' .Jesus dies and on the third day rises again (15:37, 16:6)

A' .The young man explains the departure of Jesus(16:6-8)

We can quickly see from this structure that important events in the life and mission of Jesus occurred neatly in pairs. This is known as a parallel structure and was a literary device used in ancient times to add emphasis or to develop themes not otherwise apparent. Of course, real life is not so neat and tidy, and events do not occur in such neat arrangements. The author of Mark may have taken actual events and changed their chronological order, or perhaps even created the events for the purpose of his gospel.

The later gospels could have kept the same accounts about Jesus that they found in Mark, simply adding material from the 'Q' document and improving on the narrative. However, the authors of Matthew and Luke wanted to write about the birth of Jesus, something they could not have known from Mark or Q. Each of them wrote a different account, unaware of what the other had written. For Matthew, Bethlehem was the home town of Joseph and Mary, and they remained in Bethlehem until forced to flee to Egypt, later deciding to travel to Nazareth in Galilee. For Luke, Nazareth was the home town of Joseph and Mary, and they only remained in Bethlehem a short time, then returned via Jerusalem to Nazareth. In the same way, the later three gospels contain many elaborations and changes to the original account in Mark's gospel, as well as much new material. Naturally, this leads to differences in the gospel portraits of Jesus.

Answer 5

Modern scholars say that Christianity evolved over the decades between Mark's Gospel, believed to have been written in 70 CE, and the fourth Gospel, believed to have been written early in the second century. If there were only one gospel account, it would be that found in Mark's Gospel because not only was it the first New Testament gospel, it was also the main source used by the authors of Matthew and Luke, and an indirect source for John.

Scholars point out that there were actually many more than four gospels and that Thomas' Gospel was one of those not included but at one stage seriously considered for inclusion in the New Testament. Many gospels were omitted because they were Gnostic in character, but so also was John's Gospel, although it seems to have been edited to remove a little of the Gnostic flavour.

Answer 6

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke are based substantially on the Gospel of Mark, and often follow it almost word for word in the original Greek language. However, their authors made some minor corrections, for example correcting geographical errors. Luke has a "Missing Block" or "Great Omission" where the author inadvertently omitted some sequential material from Mark, including the important miracle of walking on water.

Matthew and Luke also made use of a common source document for sayings attributed to Jesus, the hypothetical 'Q' document. 'Q' provided saying that the two evangelists used, but not the context or time in which those sayings were spoken. The two gospels often used them as parables, but generally in quite differents contexts in the ministry of Jesus. The Q material is not in Mark, while John does not make use of parables.

Whenever John parallels the other, 'synoptic' gospels it is most similar to Luke, except for a small number of passages that came direct from Mark. Apart from this, the Gospel of John differs considerably from the other gospels.

While Mark did not provide any details about the birth of Jesus, both Matthew and Luke did. The nativity accounts of Matthew and Luke are quite different and irreconcilable, as are the two genealogies of Joseph.

Mark had Jesus prophesy the end of the world and his second coming within the lifetimes of those still living. Both Matthew and Luke take up this theme from Mark, but in recognition that by the time of their writing the apostolic generation had already passed away, they minimised any suggestion of an imminent end of the world. While copying as faithfully as possible from Mark, Matthew changed the position of the sentence about "this generation", relative to the destruction of the great buildings, so that it referred to something else altogether. He added, and emphasised, material where Jesus told the disciples that the end is not yet, and that no man knows when the end of the world will occur. Then he added, in chapter 25, an elaborate description of the last judgement. Verse 31, reflecting verse 13:26 of Mark, begins a pericope in which Jesus comes in his glory and judges the people of all nations, setting the 'sheep' on the left and the 'goats' on the right, for eternal punishment or reward - the Last Judgement.

Each gospel contains its own narrative about the trial and crucifixion of Jesus, and each is quite different from the others, apart from some essential concepts carried from Mark.

Similarly, each gospel contains its own narrative about the resurrection of Jesus, and each is quite different from the others. Mark's Gospel originally ended at verse 16:8, with the women fleeing in fear and telling no-one. The "Long Ending" (verses 16:9-20) was added much later to harmonise with the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Matthew had Jesus meet the two women as they walked along the road, while Luke had Jesus meet two men as they walked along the road; the "Long Ending" of Mark ingeniously had Jesus meet "the two" as they walked along the road.

Sometimes the differences in John are to do with timing. A well known example is the passage in which Jesus overturns the tables of the moneychangers: placed at the end of the synoptic gospels but at the beginning of John. Similarly, Johnhas a passage in which the risen Jesus tells the disciples to cast their nets on the other side, at which they caught an astonishing number of fish; a close parallel to a story in Luke, before the crucifixion. Unlike the synoptics, John portrays Jesus as divine and pre-existing, several times having Jesus declare himself as God (some of this can not be read in the English translation because the subtlety of the Greek language is lost). In this context the temptation in the wilderness is meaningless, as you can not offer God what is already his; the temptation in the wilderness is omitted from John.