The first page of the in, by, 14th century. A gospel is a written account of the career and teachings of. The word originated as a contraction from old English 'god spel' meaning 'good news', 'glad tidings (of the kingdom of God)' and is comparable to the εὐαγγέλιον, evangelion ) The word originally meant the Christian message itself, but in the 2nd century it came to be used for the books in which the message was set out. The four gospels of the —,, and — are almost our only source of information on, and thus occupy a uniquely important place in Christianity. For various reasons modern scholars are cautious of relying on them uncritically, nevertheless, they do provide a good idea of the public career of Jesus, and critical study can attempt to distinguish the original ideas of Jesus from those of the later authors.

Main articles: and In the immediate aftermath of Jesus' death his followers expected him to return at any moment, and certainly within their own lifetimes. In consequence there was little motivation to write anything down for future generations, but as eyewitnesses began to die, and as the missionary needs of the church grew, there was an increasing demand and need for written versions of the founder's life and teachings. The stages of this process can be summarised as follows: • Oral traditions — stories and sayings passed on largely as separate self-contained units, and not in any chronological order; • Written collections of miracle stories, parables, sayings, etc., with oral tradition continuing alongside these; • Proto-gospels preceding and serving as sources for the written gospels — the dedicatory preface of Luke, for example, testifies to the existence of several previous accounts of the life of Jesus. • Gospels formed by combining proto-gospels, written collections and still-current oral tradition. Given this history, it is almost certain that none of the four gospels were written by eyewitnesses. Evidence of this can be seen in the conflicts between them: to take a few examples, according to the synoptic gospels, Jesus' mission took one year, was spent primarily in Galilee, and climaxed with a single visit to Jerusalem at which he cleansed the Temple of the money-changers, while in John, Jerusalem was the focus of Jesus' mission, he visited it three times (making his mission last three years rather than one), and the took place at the beginning rather than the end of the ministry. Composition [ ].

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Main article: The first three gospels are called the 'synoptics', from a Greek phrase meaning 'seen together', because they put the events of Jesus' life in the same order and have many of the same stories and sayings, often in the same or very similar words. The usual way of explaining this is that Mark was written first, and that the authors of Matthew and Luke, acting independently, used Mark plus a collection of sayings called the and additional material unique to each called the (Matthew) and the (Luke). Mark was probably written c.

AD 66–70, during 's persecution of the Christians in Rome or the Jewish revolt, and although Christian tradition ascribes it to, a companion and interpreter of the, most modern scholars regard the authorship as unknown. The general consensus is that both Matthew and Luke were written around AD 85–90. The consensus has equally rejected the idea that Luke was written by a companion of, or that Matthew was by an apostle (the superscription 'according to Matthew' was added some time in the 2nd century). The author of the may have known the synoptic gospels, but he does not use them in the way that Matthew and Luke used Mark. This is the last of four canonical gospels, usually dated to AD 90–110. Christian tradition identified the author as, but most modern scholars treat it as an anonymous work. The four gospels share a story in which the earthly career of Jesus culminates in his death and bodily resurrection, an event of crucial redemptive significance.

The four nevertheless present, reflecting different intents on the parts of their authors. The most obvious contrast is between John and the three synoptics: both relate the basic story-line from to the, but within this overall framework they present completely different pictures of Jesus' career. John has no, no, no, it lacks the institution of the and stories of Jesus' ancestry, birth, and childhood. Jesus's career in the synoptics takes up a single year while in John it takes three, in John the takes place at the beginning of his ministry while in the synoptics it happens at the end, and in the synoptics the takes place as a Passover meal, while in John it happens on the day before Passover. Mark, the first gospel, never calls Jesus 'God' or claims that Jesus existed prior to his earthly life, never mentions a virgin birth (the author apparently believes that Jesus had a normal human parentage and birth), and makes no attempt to trace Jesus' ancestry back to.

Crucially, Mark originally had no, although Mark 16:7, in which the young man discovered in the tomb instructs the women to tell 'the disciples and Peter' that Jesus will see them again in Galilee, hints that the author may have known of the tradition. Matthew reinterprets Mark, stressing Jesus' teachings as much as his acts, and making subtle changes to the narrative in order to stress his divine nature – Mark's 'young man' who appears at Jesus' tomb, for example, becomes a radiant angel in Matthew. The miracle stories in Mark confirm Jesus' status as an emissary of God (which was Mark's understanding of the Messiah), but in Matthew they demonstrate his divinity. Luke, while following Mark's plot more faithfully than does Matthew, has expanded on the source, corrected Mark's grammar and syntax, and eliminating some passages entirely, notably most of chapters 6 and 7, which he apparently felt reflected poorly on the disciples and painted Jesus too much like a magician.

The synoptic gospels represent Jesus as an and healer who preached in parables about the coming. He preached first in Galilee and later in Jerusalem, where. He states that he offers no sign as proof (Mark) or only the sign of Jonah (Matthew and Luke). In Mark, apparently written with a Roman audience in mind, Jesus is a heroic man of action, given to powerful emotions, including agony. In Matthew, apparently written for a, Jesus is repeatedly called out as the fulfillment of Hebrew prophecy. In Luke, apparently written for gentiles, Jesus is especially concerned with the poor.

Luke emphasizes the importance of prayer and the action of the in Jesus's life and in the Christian community. Jesus appears as a stoic supernatural being, unmoved even by his own crucifixion. [ ] Like Matthew, Luke insists that salvation offered by Christ is for all, and not only for the Jews. The Gospel of John is the only gospel to call Jesus God, and in contrast to Mark, where Jesus hides his identity as messiah, in John he openly proclaims it. It represents Jesus as an incarnation of the eternal Word (Logos), who spoke no parables, talked extensively about himself, and did not explicitly refer to a. Jesus preaches in Jerusalem, launching his ministry with the cleansing of the temple.

He performs several miracles as signs, most of them not found in the synoptics. The Gospel of John ends:(21:25) 'And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Main article: The consensus among modern scholars is that the gospels belong to the ancient genre of bios, or biography. Ancient biographies were concerned with providing examples for readers to emulate while preserving and promoting the subject's reputation and memory, and so they included both propaganda and (preaching) in their works. Mark, for example, is not biography in the modern sense but an history depicting Jesus caught up in events at the end of time. As Luke's attempt to link the birth of Jesus to the demonstrates, there is no guarantee that the gospels are historically accurate. The gospel authors altered the traditions at their disposal (their sources) to serve their own ends — thus Matthew and Luke have frequently edited Mark, and the contradictions and discrepancies between John and the synoptics make it impossible to accept both as reliable A second problem is that the gospels as we have them are not the originals, but have been edited and recopied over time, and evidently differ from them in thousands of ways.

In that long chain of transmission the texts have been corrupted, leading to complain in the 3rd century that 'the differences among manuscripts have become great. [because copyists] either neglect to check over what they have transcribed, or, in the process of checking, they make additions or deletions as they please.'

Despite all this, scholars are confident that the gospels do provide a good idea of the public career of Jesus, and that critical study can attempt to distinguish the ideas of Jesus from those of later authors and editors. Canonisation and the non-canonical gospels [ ]. Further information: Canonisation [ ] The creation of a Christian canon was probably a response to the career of the heretic (c. 85–160), who established a canon of his own with just one gospel, the gospel of Luke, which he edited to fit his own theology.

The, the earliest surviving list of books considered (by its own author at least) to form Christian scripture, included Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Went further, stating that there must be four gospels and only four because there were four corners of the Earth and thus the Church should have four pillars. Jewish-Christian gospels [ ]. Main article: The gospel attributed to Thomas is mostly without narrating Jesus's life. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church says that the original may date from c. It may represent a tradition independent from the canonical gospels, but that developed over a long time and was influenced by Matthew and Luke.

While it can be understood in terms, it lacks the characteristic features of Gnostic doctrine. The identified two of its unique parables, the and the. It had been lost but was discovered, in a Coptic version dating from c. Pokemon Crystal Hack Version Download. 350, at in 1945–46, and three papyri, dated to c.

200, which contain fragments of a Greek text similar to but not identical with that in the Coptic language, have also been found. Gospel of Peter [ ]. Main article: The is another controversial and ancient text that purports to tell the story of the gospel from the perspective of Judas, the disciple who is usually said to have betrayed Jesus. It paints an unusual picture of the relationship between Jesus and Judas, in that it appears to interpret Judas's act not as betrayal, but rather as an act of obedience to the instructions of Jesus. The text was recovered from a cave in Egypt by a thief and thereafter sold on the black market until it was finally discovered by a collector who, with the help of academics from Yale and Princeton, was able to verify its authenticity.

The document itself does not claim to have been authored by Judas (it is, rather, a gospel about Judas), and is known to date to at least 180 AD. Gospel of Mary [ ]. Main article:, c. 150, had a much shorter version of the gospel that differed substantially from what has now become the standard text of the gospel of Luke.

Marcion's version of the gospel was far less oriented towards the Jewish scriptures than the now canonical texts are. Marcion is said to have rejected all other gospels, including those of Matthew, Mark and especially John, which he allegedly rejected as having been forged. Marcion's critics alleged that he had edited out the portions he didn't like from the then canonical version, though Marcion is said to have argued that his text was the more genuinely original one. The Gospel of the Lots of Mary [ ] Written in, it contains that would have been used to provide support and reassurance to people seeking help for problems. It is not a gospel in the traditional sense, since it doesn’t predominantly teach about Christ. Blackened Sky Biffy Clyro Rar Download more. See also [ ] •.