THE GOSPELS • NT Writings

• The Gospels

o “Gospel” o The Four Written Gospels o Communities Behind the

Gospels

• 3 Stages of Gospel

Formation

THE GOSPELS

• The Synoptic Gospels

• Authorship

• Further Reading & Useful Websites

WRITINGS OF NT • 4 Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John

• The Acts of the Apostles

• 13 Letters of St. Paul

• 7 “Catholic” Letters of John, Peter, James, Jude

• Letter to the Hebrews

• Book of Revelation

THE GOSPELS • Gospels are faith-coloured narratives

• “Gospel” – euangelion - Good News!

o Isaiah 52:7 o Romans 1:16-17

• Sources for knowing about Jesus’ life

o Extra-biblical: Josephus (Jewish) & Tacitus (Roman) o NT writings & the Gospels o Apocryphal gospels

STAGES OF GOSPEL FORMATION

• 1 Corinthians 15:3-4

o Jesus’ identity asserted oHis mission interpreted oConsistent with prophecy

HELPFUL GUIDES • Pontifical Biblical Commission: “Historical Truth of

the Gospels” (1964) • Dei Verbum (Vatican II: “Dogmatic Constitution on

Divine Revelation”) (1965) • Catechism of the Catholic Church (§51-141) (1992;

rev. 1997) • Pontifical Biblical Commission: “Interpretation of

the Bible in the Church” (1993) • Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England & Wales &

Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Scotland: “The Gift of Scripture” (2005)

STAGES OF GOSPEL FORMATION

• “To judge properly concerning the reliability of what is transmitted in the Gospels, the interpreter should pay diligent attention to the three stages of tradition by which the doctrine & the life of Jesus have come down to us”

PBC, The Historical Truth of the Gospels(VI,2). • Catechism of Catholic Church (CCC) n.126

STAGES OF GOSPEL FORMATION

Stage 1: The public ministry of Jesus of Nazareth (c.30-33 AD) Stage 2: The apostolic preaching about Jesus (c.33-70 AD) Stage 3: The evangelists’ written Gospels (c.70-100 AD)

THE PREACHERS

• “interpreted his words & deeds according to the needs of their listeners,” using “catecheses, stories, testimonia, hymns, doxologies, prayers, & other literary forms of this sort”

PBC, The Historical Truth of the Gospels (VIII)

THE EVANGELISTS • Wrote, “for the benefit of the Churches, with

a method suited to the peculiar purpose which each one set for himself. From the many things handed down, they selected some things, reduced others to a synthesis, (still) others they explicated as they kept in mind the situation of the Churches”

PBC, The Historical Truth of the Gospels (IX).

THE EVANGELISTS • “This means, then, that none of the

evangelists was an eyewitness of Jesus’ ministry. They heard about Jesus & his ministry from others who were “eyewitnesses” & who had become ‘ministers of the word’ (Lk 1:2)”

Joseph Fitzmyer, Christological Catechism, p.25.

THE EVANGELISTS • “The wide recognition that the evangelists were not

eyewitnesses of Jesus’ ministry is important for understanding the differences in the Gospels. In the older approach wherein eyewitness testimony was directly involved, it was very difficult to explain differences in the Gospels… The evangelists, who were not eyewitnesses, had a task that the preachers of Stage Two never had, namely, to shape a sequential narrative from Jesus’ baptism to his resurrection” Raymond E. Brown, Reading the Gospels with the Church, pp.16,17.

THE GOSPELS • Can help us to a knowledge of:

oJesus

oThe Communities

oThe authors (evangelists)

THE GOSPELS • “Synoptic” Gospels • Origins: oE. Mediterranean

(Mt & Jn) oRome (Mk) oGreece (Lk)

SYNOPTIC PROBLEM

DIFFERENCES IN SYNOPTICS

• Address different audiences • Communities in different places • Different pressures • Different perspectives on Jesus • Different portrayal of disciples • View of Christian life in the Church

THE GOSPELS • Koine Greek

• Earliest mss date

from 2nd & 3rd cent.

• Date of composition

DEI VERBUM 19

• “The sacred authors, in writing the four Gospels, selected certain of the many elements which had been handed on, either orally or already in written form, others they synthesised or explained with an eye to the situation of the churches, the while sustaining the form of preaching, but always in such a fashion that they have told us the honest truth about Jesus.”

MEANING? • The Gospels must be read from three

perspectives: oThe evangelists oThe early Church oJesus

• Evangelists: select, shape & proclaim