The Gospel: One Story, Many Dimensions George Keralis, DMin 307-682-3316 Study notes taken from How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth By Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart At first glance, interpreting and applying the message found in the Gospels out to be quite easy. The Gospels are divided into stories and teachings. Apply the rules of the epistles to the teachings of Jesus and apply the rules of narratives to the stories. Easy enough. Right? Maybe there s a bit more to interpreting and applying the teachings and stories of the Gospels than meets the eye. The biggest difficulty that we will encounter in our study of the Gospels is understanding the kingdom of heaven. Once we can understand this concept, most everything in the Gospels will fall into place. THE NATURE OF THE GOSPELS Two obvious facts characterize the gospels and the difficulties we encounter when we study the Gospels. Jesus did not write any of the Gospels. These are books about Jesus which contain a number of His teachings and incidents in His life. The words of Jesus appear in 1, 2, 3 or 4 of the Gospels. While they may appear in the same chronological order at some points, they are not exactly the same in their wording. God gave us what we know about Jesus earthly ministry in this way, not in another way that might better suit someone s mechanistic, tape-recorder mentality. 1 The Gospels are written about Jesus. There are four Gospels, not just one like Acts. Three of the four Gospels are very similar. We call these the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke). John is the Gospel that doesn t seem to fit with the other three. We might even wonder why we retain Mark. He has the least amount of exclusive material in the Gospels. Why four? We have four different men writing to four different communities. Mark was written first for one community, while Matthew and Luke were written for other communities. All four gospels deal with the interest of Jesus at two different levels. The first is the purely historical concerns about Jesus. Who was Jesus? What did He say and do? This story is told in four different settings for people living in different communities and for people who would live after the first generation died. But there are other concerns. In particular, there are the concerns about the authors themselves. Who were they? What influenced them to write? What background stood behind each author as the story took shape? 1 Fee. 133.
2 THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT We must be aware of the historical context of Jesus and aware of the historical context of each of the authors. The Historical Context of Jesus In General Be aware of historical Judaism in the first century in Palestine. You may want to purchase one of two books. Everett Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity, 2d edition (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993), pp. 373 546 or Joachim Jeremias, Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1969). Be aware of the form of Jesus teaching. o He used the parable quite frequently (Matthew 13). o He was the master of overstatement or hyperbole (Matthew 5:29-30; Mark 9:43-48). o He used proverbs (Matthew 6:21). o Similes and metaphors (Matthew 10:16; 5:13) o Questions (Matthew 17:25) o Irony (Matthew 16:2-4) o You might want to read Robert H. Steins. The Method and Message of Jesus Teaching, Louisville, KY: Westminster John Know, 1944 The Historical Context In Particular Many of Jesus teaching are presented in the Gospels without any description of context, which makes this process difficult. In the beginning, all of Jesus stories were transmitted orally. The context was not transferred in many cases. However, a few cases included the oral transmission of the context (Mark 12:13-17). When Paul quotes from the Gospels, he does not spell out the context. This makes interpreting the Gospels even more difficult. Because so many of the teachings came without context, this gave the Gospel writers liberty to group the teachings as they desired to bring home a point. Matthew has five such groups of teachings (chs 5-7; 10:5-42; 13:1-52; 18:1-35; chs 23-25). We see that Matthew drew these collections together by comparing his writings with Luke, who wrote in a chronological format. One of the questions that you will need to ask yourself concerns the audience to whom Jesus was teaching: His close disciples, the large crowds or His enemies. The Historical Context of the Evangelist We are interested in the author s interests and concerns. We can determine this by the type of material he chose to use in his gospel. Mark appears to emphasize the suffering servant motif of Jesus, drawing particularly from Isaiah 53. Matthew focuses on the conflict between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdoms of this earth. Outside reading in a good study Bible will assist you in digging out these backgrounds. THE LITERARY CONTEXT In this section, we want to look at the place a Gospel write put the account of a teaching or event. He may not have put the event in the same place another writer put the
3 event. We have two concerns here. To help you read (exegete) with understanding a given saying or narrative in its present context. To help you understand the nature of the composition of the gospels as wholes, and thus to interpret anyone of the Gospels itself. 2 Interpreting the Individual Stories, Events or Teachings Think horizontally and think vertically. Remember, there are four gospels and each Gospel has two levels. Think Horizontally To think horizontally means that whenever you study a passage in one Gospel, you become aware of the parallel passages in other Gospels. Be careful. By reading the parallel passages, you may be tempted to fill out the story. Remember, each writer recorded what the Spirit led him to record for a particular group of people. There are two reasons for thinking horizontally. The parallels will often give us an appreciation for the individual Gospel writers. The parallels will help us to be aware of the different kinds of context in which the same materials lived in the ongoing church. You may bring some presuppositions to the study of the Gospels. You may think that each one of these Gospels was written independently of one another. That is not the case. Consider the feeding of the 5,000. This account appears in all four gospels. 1. Number of words used to tell the story Matthew 157 Mark 194 Luke 153 John 199 2. Number of words common to all of the first three gospels: 53 3. 3. Number of words John has in common with all the others: 8 (five, two, five thousand, took loaves, twelve baskets of pieces) 4. Percentages of agreement Matthew with Mark 59.0& Matthew with Luke 44.0% Luke with Mark 40.0% John with Matthew 8.5% John with Mark 8.5% John with Luke 6.5% One idea seems to be certain. John appears to write independently from the other three, while the other three seem to have some collaboration. Mark seems to be the basis for Matthew and Luke. 2 139.
4 If you want to take a serious look at parallel passages, you can purchase a harmony of the Gospels or you can access A.T. Robertson s A Harmony of the Gospels online at https://junesjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/harmoney-of-the-gospels-tableand-text.pdf. You may easily access this tool on our church s web site under Christian Education>Study Tools. Think Vertically To think vertically means that as you read the Gospels you are thinking of both historical contexts that of Jesus and that of the writer. Caution: We are not simply studying the Gospels to unearth the historical Jesus. These are God s records to us of the teachings of Jesus. We are not here to impose our historical context of the writings of the authors. Use Matthew 20:1-16 as a means of exploration. First, look horizontally at the parallel passages. Note the similarities and be aware of the differences between the parallel passages. After thinking horizontally, take a few minutes to think vertically. How does this passage fit the purpose of the author as he develops his main theme? Interpreting the Gospels as Wholes Learn to see the kinds of concerns that have gone into the composition of the Gospels that makes each of them unique. Three principles are at work in the composition of the Gospels. Selectivity Note John 20:30-31; 21:25 Arrangement John wrote so that people might believe that Jesus was the Christ (20:31). Adaptation Look at Mark 11:12-14, 20-25; Matthew 21:18-22. Each writer has a different purpose or reason for including and presenting this material. SOME HERMENEUTICAL OBSERVATIONS There is a parallel between what has been said concerning the Epistles and the historical narratives. The Teachings and Imperatives We must transfer the principles of Jesus teaching from the Judaistic culture of the first century to any of the modern cultures. How do we apply the Old Testament teachings to our lives in the 21 st century, well removed from the Mosaic culture? How do we reconcile Law (obedience) with grace? The Narratives The narratives seem to have different purposes. The miracle narratives seem to function as vital illustrations of the power of the kingdom breaking in through Jesus own ministry. 3 Sometimes the narratives are used as a means of teaching lessons. We 3 149.
5 must always remember to exercise good exegesis with the narratives. Do not make them say more than what they were designed to say. A Final, Very Important Word One dare not think they can properly interpret the Gospels without a clear understanding of the concept of the kingdom of God in the ministry of Jesus. 4 Remember that the basic theological framework of the entire New Testament is eschatological. Eschatology has to do with the end. God is preparing and moving us towards the end. He is preparing us to become different from what we are now. We are moving out of this age where Satan dominates into an age where Satan is no longer a matter of discussion. The coming of the end also means a new beginning. However, with the coming of the Spirit, the new age was ushered in. Yet, we still live in this old age. There is a time of overlap. We live in tension. The new is come, yet the old is still here. We are part of one world while at the same time, part of the old world. We need to think in terms of the new, not the old. The Kingdom of Heaven is synonymous with God s rule. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 4 150.