No. The four gospels were written at different times and all independently. Mark is regarded as the earliest - around 60AD or so. The evidence for this is that both Matthew and Luke include many of Mark's words in their own accounts and so it is very likely that they had copies of Mark's gospel to which to refer when they wrote their own accounts from their own angles - Matthew as a Jew and Luke as a Gentile. Both Matthew and Luke also used a second source called 'Q' which is now lost, as a further chunk of their two gospels are very similar. We can pinpoint Luke's account as it predates the Acts of the Apostles (his second book) in which Luke gives us lots of dates and places which can be verifies archaeologically. Therefore we can date Luke's account to around 65-70AD Matthew is nore difficult, but experts agree it probably dates from around the same time as Luke's account. It seems that John's account was unknown in the early church until around 90-100AD and therefore it is likely that John's account was not written until that time, when John was very old. Despite their independence and thei being written over a long period of time, in different places around the Mediterranean area, they agree remarkably with the major events of Christ's life - which suggests that their accounts are reliable and trustworthy and corroborate each other.
No. The four gospels were written at different times, as demonstrated by a clear dependency from one to another. Markis regarded as the earliest, with internal evidence placing it around 70 CE. Both Matthew and Luke include many of Mark's words in their own accounts, so are obviously later than Mark.
As Christianity diverged away from Judaism, an anti-Jewish theme becomes apparent: Paul, who wrote first, is proudly Jewish; there is scarcely any anti-Jewish sentiment in Mark, other than polemics against Pharisees and scribes, then Matthew is less anti-Jewish in tenor than is Luke, while Johndisplays considerable antagonism towards Jews in general. This is one good reason to regard Matthew as somewhat earlier than Luke. Matthew is generally dated by scholars to the eighties of the first century, with Luke at least a decade later.
The consensus of New Testament scholars is that John was loosely based on Luke, which means that John must be dated to the beginning of the second century.
The four accepted Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) were chosen by early Christian leaders based on their theological content, historical reliability, and connection to apostolic tradition. These Gospels were seen as the most authoritative and comprehensive accounts of Jesus' life, teachings, death, and resurrection. Other Gospels were either deemed to lack credibility or not widely recognized by the early Christian communities.
AnswerThere were two main branches of Christianity at the time the four New Testament gospels were chosen - the Gnostics and those who are sometimes now referred to as 'Catholic-Orthodox' Christians, since this was long before the Great Schism of 1054. The Gnostics did not choose the four gospels we now know, preferring other gospels. Wihin Catholic-Orthodox Christianity, Irenaeus proposed that there be exactly four gospels, just as there are four corners to the earth and there are four winds, and that they were Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Irenaeus was from the Greek-speaking east, but had become bishop of Lyons, so both East and West can lay claim to choosing the four gospels.
No. The four Gospels ('Gospel' means good news) are accounts by four of Jesus' contemporaries (and maybe one near-contemporary) about what Jesus said, what He did, where He went, to whom He spoke, etc. The Gospels contain references to God's people before Jesus' time (mostly made by Jesus Himself), but they are included only incidentally to the main thrust of the Scripture. The Gospels' principal focus is on Jesus.
Each gospel made up one book of the New Testament. There are four gospels in the New Testament; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Each of the gospels was written in the Koine Greek of the time (1st and 2nd centuries AD). There are a number of other gospels, some of them having been referred to as gnostic gospels, (Thomas being a quite famous one). However, after Bishop Iraeneus of Lyon (now a city in France) perceived the need for only four gospels (early in the 3rd century AD), this became the standard - for all Bibles.
It appears 123 times in the Gospels in the English Standard Version (ESV).
There were many gospels and 'Acts' written over time, but most of them were written by Gnostic Christians and were too different from the teachings of the branch of Christanity that came to dominate in the later part of the second century, and therefore had the privilege of defining the New Testament. The four gospels we now know were the four that most closely matched its teachings. The influential early Church Father, Irenaeus stated that there must be four and only four gospels, just as there are four corners of the earth, and supported the inclusion in the New Testament of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.None of these books was really written by disciples of Jesus, although they bore the names of various apostles. 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 four gospels in the New Testament. Despite the versions printed in our Bibles long having borne the names Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, these names are mere attributions and they are most unlikely to have been the real authors.
A:The New Testament gospels were originally anonymous and modern biblical scholars say the second-century attributions to the apostles were speculative, rather than based on fact. Therefore, there is no reason to expect that, for example, Matthew's Gospel would have been written in Aramaic or Hebrew. The synoptic gospels were all written in Greek Koine, a dialect of Attic Greek. This can most readily be demonstrated by reading them in parallel in the original Greek language, when you will se that as the authors of Matthew and Luke copied from Mark, they often used exactly the same words in the Greek language. This would only be possible if they were working from a Greek copy of Mark and writing their new gospels out in the same language.
There are almost countless bits of ancient writings that claim to be accounts of Jesus' life, but only 4 Gospels have been canonized, or accepted into the Bible as scripture. These are the accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Controversy continues over whether or not Gnostic Gospels should be canonized, and these arguments are revived every time a new one is discovered.
Reading the Bible isn't a race and if time is a factor, one should wait until they have more of it. The four Gospels could easily be read in a day by many and an hour by some. It depends on the reader.
The prominent writings of Jesus' life and speaking events are recorded in the four Gospels. He also revealed much end-time events and timelines in the Book of Revelation.
The guidelines for canonising the books that now form the New Testament were firstly to select those books that were believed to really have been written by the early apostles and secondly those books that most closely matched the theology of the dominant Church at that time. The first to use the term "New Testament" was Irenaeus, who was assistant to the first bishop of Lyon (France) and flourished about 180 CE. He called for four gospels, and exactly four, on the basis that there were four corners of the world and four winds. Those Gospels, he said, were to be those of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.Thus, the Gospel of Thomas was excluded, as were many other gospels, mainly from the Gnostic branch of early Christianity. The epistles attributed to St Paul were probably an automatic choice. Hebrews was not a widely read book, but was preserved and included in the New Testament because, at the time, it was also attributed to Paul. The claim to include Revelation was strongly disputed, but the view, that "John of Patmos" was the same John as mentioned by the gospels, won the day.
The time difference between the Gospels is due to the fact that they were written by different authors at different times, with each author providing their own perspective and emphasis on certain aspects of Jesus' life and teachings. Each Gospel serves a unique purpose and audience, which accounts for variations in details and timeline.