Which gospel has the most words?

Answer 1

A:Each gospel is different. Mark's Gospel is the original, on which the other New Testament gospels were based, but is also the shortest. Whenever one gospel is more comprehensive in its coverage of an event or time in the life of Jesus, it almost invariably provides a completely different story that is entirely unknown to the other evangelists. Whether these are complementary or contradictory accounts is sometimes a matter of judgement.

Only Matthew's Gospel and Luke's Gospel contain nativity accounts. Matthew contains a nativity account of some 31 verses, in which parallels are drawn between Jesus and Moses. Luke contains a nativity account of over 40 verses, plus a preamble that describes the birth of John the Baptist. Neither gospels covers events in the other gospel.

The passion and resurrection stories in Matthew's Gospel can not be compared at all with those in Luke and John. Luke devotes a chapter of 52 verses to the resurrection of Jesus, during which Jesus appeared to the two on the road to Emmaeus and then once at a meal in Jerusalem, after which he took them out towards Bethany, where he ascended bodily to heaven. These events all took place within the space of one day. John's story of the resurrection of Jesus is only slightly longer, at 56 verses, but occupies a much longer period of time and includes two visits to the disciples at a meal, the story of 'doubting Thomas' and an appearance to the disciples in Galilee.

Answer 2

A:If there is any accurate depiction of Jesus among the gospels, this would necessarily be in Mark's Gospel. True, the Gospels of Matthew and Luke are traditionally attributed to the disciples Matthew and John, eyewitnesses to the life and mission of Jesus, but biblical scholars say that the four New Testament gospels were all written anonyomously and only attributed to the apostles whose names they now bear later in the second century. They say that none of the gospels could have really been written by an eyewitness to the events portrayed.

As the gospels began to be studied by the Church Fathers, they recognised a literary dependency among the synoptic gospels, such that two of them must have been copied from the third, and came to the conclusion that Mark and Luke were copied from Matthew. The Church Fathers came close in their assumption, but biblical scholars now know that Mark's Gospel was the first New Testament gospel to be written, approximately 70 CE. Matthewand Luke were subsequent copies from Mark. The gospel now known as John's Gospel was also inspired by Luke's Gospel, with a small amount of material taken direct from Mark. Thus, the further removed from the original Gospel of Mark, the less accurately it depicts Jesus.

This leaves us to establish, as far as possible, how accurate the depiction of Jesus is in Mark's Gospel, and there is a surprising range of views as to the sources for this gospel. Raymond E. Brown (An Introduction to the New Testament) says that Mark seems to depend on traditions (and perhaps already shaped sources) received in Greek. Parallels have been detected between Mark and Paul's letter to the Romans and 1 Corinthians. It could be that Mark's author wove his gospel around various key people (principally James, Peter and John) and key events that he found in Paul's epistles. Dennis R. MacDonald (The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark) also sees close parallels between the Gospel and Homers epics, which he believes Mark's author used as sources for many gospel passages. Certainly, the sophisticated chiastic structure of the Gospel means it could not have been a literal history of the life and mission of Jesus.

We can rule out the nativity accounts in Matthew and Luke, which biblical scholars regards as literary inventions. We can also rule out the four different depictions of the empty tomb and the appearances of the risen Jesus. Mark's Gospel originally ended at verse 16:8 with the young man telling the women that he is risen and they fled in terror, telling no one. The 'Long Ending' was added much later, after the other gospels had been written.

Answer 3

It is only possible to talk about a 'most complete' gospel if each of the gospels was written independent of the others and based on eyewitness sources, therefore containing actual events the other gospels omitted. However this is no really the case. Ian Wilson (Jesus: The Evidence) says that it can come as quite a shock to discover that no-one can even be sure who wrote the gospels, with the names Matthew, Mark, Luke and John being mere attributions, and we can not assume that the authors had any first-hand knowledge of Jesus or even knew anyone who had known Jesus.

Mark's Gospel was the first gospel to be written, approximately 70 CE. Scholars have established that the authors of Matthewand Luke relied on Mark for everything they knew about the life and mission of Jesus. Also John's Gospel was inspired by Luke, although some material was copied direct from Mark. The importance of this is that only the author of Mark's Gospel could have known the events occurred in the life of Jesus, yet scholars find parallels between Mark and various earlier sources its author may have used.

If the author of Mark's Gospel was the only evangelist who could have known the events occurred in the life of Jesus, then the events unique to each of the other gospels should be regarded as literary creations. For example, both Matthew and Luke contain detailed accounts of the birth of Jesus, but almost nothing in Matthew's account agrees with the story in Luke. Matthew says that Bethlehem was the home town of Joseph and Mary, but soon after the birth of Jesus they fled from Bethlehem to Egypt out of fear of King Herod, years later beginning to return to their home in Bethlehem but turning aside to travel to Galilee and settle in a city called Nazareth. Lukesays that Nazareth was the home town of Joseph and Mary, and that they travelled to Bethlehem for a census under Quirinius, then returned home to Nazareth a few weeks after the birth of Jesus. These stories are not only irreconcible, but do not record true events.

If we only regard the gospel with the most narrative as the most complete gospel, then that would be Luke's Gospel.

Answer 4

Luke. The word counts of the gospels in the original Greek are as follows:

Matthew: 18,402

Mark: 11,378

Luke: 19,598

John: 15,850

Answer 5

The gospels of John and Luke tell us the most of Jesus.

Answer 6

The Gospel of Luke has the most words among the four Gospels in the New Testament.

Answer 7

The Gospel of St.Mark

Answer 8

mark

Answer 9

Matthew!