The Structure of the Gospels

Four gospels together are better than one gospel because each gospel has historically been able to address a different group of people. For example the early church understood that Matthew was written in Hebrew or Aramaic (Carson, 143) as this would have addressed Jewish people in Judah, but other gospels would have been written in Greek from the start as Greek would have been more of a common language for more people. Addressing each gospel from a specific person to a specific group of people made the good news about Jesus very personal and tailored.

Luke 1:3 identifies that Luke is writing to a ruler named Theophilus, and this is for example much more different than John 1:1 that opens very theologically as it identifies Jesus Christ as the Son of God. The point is that the gospel writers knew exactly who they had been writing to, so they formed their messages very carefully in order to maximize reception and understandability. The problem with having one gospel is that it would completely reduce the ability for the message of the gospel to be tailored because people would receive one standard message, and then deviation in any way from that standard message would be considered not gospel. Overall, the only appeal to having one gospel is that it can provide a uniform and exact way to express truth about Jesus, but this really is not a benefit at all when fully considered because the message of the gospel needs to be 'flexible' enough in order to work into various contexts.

The reason why the gospel writers made several gospels is because they would have identified that Jesus Christ himself was very personal in the way that he put together messages specifically for the people that had been listening to him. A vast amount of what Jesus says in the gospels is actually said by Jesus as he is in dialog with other people, and when Jesus does go into a monologue, then he does so because he is addressing situations or often expanding upon what is already said. The point is that even the good news from the lips of Jesus Christ was very fitted and fitting for the exact time, place, people, and situation that Jesus brought the good news into, and the gospel writers followed along with what Jesus had already started.

If my best friend asked me how to identify what Jesus has said from all the other text in the New Testament, then I would first follow the most practical approach to answering the question by giving my friend a red letter bible with the words of Christ in red letters. Why go through the work of identifying what words are the words of Jesus Christ from those of the early church fathers if other people have done the hard work already? Just like the gospels are tailored to a specific target audience, so too handling other such concerns such as those of what words are the words of Christ should be handled in the very same way. In some cases however some people are not satisfied with believing what most intelligent people of faith would decide to be true concerning the scripture, and in such a case need exists for some methods to be employed to attempt to unveil truth.

Literature is best understood from the perspective of voice, and just like people have a specific and identifiable voice in speaking the same is true of writing as well. An author's voice provides a distinct pattern of word usage and relationships between words that clearly identifies who wrote or said what. When Jesus Christ speaks, he has a very distinct voice, and when church father's write in interruption of that voice they often have a much different pattern to their use of words.

Comparing text types of the Greek New Testament can also help to identify changes in the development of the New Testament, and this is especially true when comparing the Byzantine text type with the Alexandrian text type. The point is that some narrative interruptions of the text of the New Testament may be found through identifying how ancient texts are different. Overall, regardless of methods employed to find the words of Christ from the words of church fathers, the important point is that the New Testament is all good breathed in from divine inspiration.

Bibliography:

Carson, D and Douglas J. Moo. An Introduction to the New Testament. Grand Rapids, Michigon: Zondervan, 2005.