THE GOSPELS. NT Writings. The Gospels. 3 Stages of Gospel Formation. o Gospel o The Four Written Gospels o Communities Behind the Gospels

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2 THE GOSPELS NT Writings The Gospels o Gospel o The Four Written Gospels o Communities Behind the Gospels 3 Stages of Gospel Formation

3 THE GOSPELS The Synoptic Gospels Authorship Further Reading & Useful Websites

4 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

5 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

6 STAGES OF GOSPEL FORMATION 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 o Jesus identity asserted o His mission interpreted o Consistent with prophecy

7 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 ( ) (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)

8 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

9 STAGES OF GOSPEL FORMATION Stage 1: The public ministry of Jesus of Nazareth (c AD) Stage 2: The apostolic preaching about Jesus (c AD) Stage 3: The evangelists written Gospels (c AD)

10 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)

11 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).

12 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.

13 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.

14 THE GOSPELS Can help us to a knowledge of: ojesus othe Communities othe authors (evangelists)

15 Synoptic Gospels THE GOSPELS Origins: oe. Mediterranean (Mt & Jn) orome (Mk) ogreece (Lk)

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17 SYNOPTIC PROBLEM

18 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

19 THE GOSPELS Koine Greek Earliest mss date from 2 nd & 3 rd cent. Date of composition

20 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.

21 MEANING? The Gospels must be read from three perspectives: othe evangelists othe early Church ojesus Evangelists: select, shape & proclaim