the Gospels

there are a lot of questions people have re: the gospels (the first 4 books of the New Testament that focus on the life and work of Jesus directly)

I was talking to a guy a few weeks ago who had some of these concerns floating around in his mind.

Namely it's what scholars call the "synoptic problem"... that the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke say slightly different things and occasionally seem to contradict each other. If that were true, that would be a cause of concern, but this issue has been drastically blown out of proportion and misunderstood.

Here's what i'd like to submit... that the differences in the Gospels are stylistic not factual.

Let me tell you what i mean by that. I've often heard the explanation given that the 4 Gospels and the men who were used by God to write them are like 4 eyewitnesses of an incident. If you called the 4 people into a witness room and asked them to give a deposition, all 4 would have slightly different things they'd mention, remember, or have thought important. For the most part they would all agree on the principal parts of the account, but there would be variations from their perspectives.

I DON'T DISAGREE with that analogy, but i think it ignores an important aspect that i've already mentioned... that each Gospel writer has a different STYLISTIC concern.

Only one Gospel writer, Luke, is trying to write an "eyewitness" kind of account of all the facts. How do we know? because he tells us so but to imply that Matthew, Mark (and John) might be somehow trying to do the same thing is incorrect. Their concerns are different (the reason i put john in brackets is because most people realize this about John's gospel, that his concern and style make it a little different. but for some reason the other writers aren't afforded the same courtesy)

Instead here's what i propose as another hopelessly flawed (yet possibly helpful) analogy...Think about it this way. 4 men are big fans of former president JFK. All 4 had contact with him, watched his life and work unfold. And all 4 want to write about him.

One of them decides to write a full biography arranging facts of his life, schooling, family, etc. and does so, trying to give a complete historical picture of who JFK was.

But one of the authors is really interested in JFK as a man of faith and so writes his book focusing on his faith journey and how it shaped him and influenced his work in office.

another author is taken with the whole Kennedy family and writes his book looking at JFK as the pinnacle of the family's influence, the Kennedy of Kennedys.

the last author sees JFK as the greatest president who ever lived. And so his book is written with a mind to prove that belief.

Now would you be surprised to read through these 4 books and to find them different in content (not in accuracy)? or course not!

This, IMHO, is much closer to what we have in the 4 Gospels. We do NOT have four men all trying to give sworn depositions, we've got 1 guy doing that (luke) and the others are

- writing about Jesus as the promised Jewish Messiah but with a special eye towards how he was with the outcasts of society (matthew, the tax collector's, gospel)

- writing a heart-pumping thriller of a narrative that climaxes at the cross and leaves the resolution (the resurrection) a little up in the air to sympathize with and challenge all of us who have not seen him in Risen, bodily form (Mark, the young man who followed jesus from boyhood's, Gospel)

- writing about Jesus as a worker of miracles and signs who should be believed and trusted as the one through whom Life comes (John, "the disciple whom Jesus loved"'s, Gospel)

They aren't contradicting each other on the facts of the case, but their concerns, thematically and literarily drive them to write differently from one another.

There is more to be said, i hope i've at least given you something to think about the next time you read a Gospel (the Good News) of Jesus Christ... and for further study find a good Study Bible and read those introductions that come beforehand, i know i've found them helpful!