REL 300 GOSPELS

0.1 A GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Welcome to this module of The Gospels. The purpose of this module is to help you gain new
knowledge of historical Jesus, his birth, ministry and his teachings in Palestine. The module is
divided into three sections. Part one is a general discussion of the gospels. It included the meaning,
classification of the gospels, grounds for writing the gospels, assumptions and approaches to the
gospels and synoptic problem.
Part two isa critical approach to the four Gospels. It is an attempt to establish the authors of the
gospels, the date and place when and where the gospels were written, the audience to whom each
of the gospels was written, the aims and theology of each gospel book.
Part three is concerned with the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. In this section, we will comment
of the means by which Jesus taught: his exemplary life, use of parables and performance of mighty
works (miracles)
0.2 Course Objectives
By the end of this unit, you should be able to:
i. Explain the meaning of the Gospels
ii. Discuss the writing, relationship among the gospels, assumptions and approaches and
synoptic problem
iii. Discuss the authorship, aims and characteristics of individual Gospels
iv. Give analysis of Jesus teachings in the gospel
v. Explain the facts and truth about the miracles of Jesus

PART ONE:
1.0 GENERAL DISCUSSION ON GOSPEL
1.1 Introduction
This section is a discussion on the gospel in general. It aims at understanding the meaning and
relationship among the gospels, grounds for writing the gospels, assumptions and approaches to
the gospels and problems of the gospels
1.3 Objectives
By the end of this section, you should be able to:
i. Explain the meaning of the Gospels
ii. Discuss transition from oral to written form of gospels
iii. Difficulties and approaches the study of the gospels
1.4 Content
1.4.1 Meaning of gospel
Etymologically, the English word Gospel is derived from the Anglo-Saxon Godspell which meant,
“god speaks” or “good tidings” later on to be called “story concerning God”. Today Gospel means
the message of Christianity and books that records Christ’s life and teachings. In other words,
gospel refers to the narratives about Jesus or collections of his sayings. Gospel also known as
evangelion or good news; it is the message of good news that God provided redemption through
his son Jesus Christ (Rom. 1:1, 15-16; 1 Thess. 2:2,9; Mark 1:1; Rom. 15:19) (you have to connect
this with history of salvation). In the gospels, Jesus teaches by his own exemplar life, words and
miracles.
1.4.2 The Gospel Collection,
Before the 4th Century, the whole fourfold collection was usually called the Gospel. The one and
only Gospel of Christ and the four components of the collection were distinguished by the
addition of the words “according to Matthew, according to Mark and so on. We can trace the
existence and recognition of the four Gospels back to the early years of the second century. The
four-fold Gospels as a single collection date from shortly after AD 100; while other greater
collection in the New Testament Canon and Pauline corpus were written at same period.
1.4.3 The history of the gospels
The history of the four gospels in the first century goes back to the days immediately succeeding
the great events of AD 30- the passion, resurrection and ascension of Jesus christ, and the
following day of Pentecost. These days witnessed the beginnings of what has been called the
gospels behind gospels. But gospel was preached earlier. Before his passion Jesus and his apostles
had announced ‘the good news of the kingdom of God’. Jesus and his apostles announced that the
kingdom of God had drawn near as indeed it had in his own person. But the manner and
implications of its drawing near were fully unfolded only in his death and resurrection. The
Kingdom of God is conceived as coming in the events of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus
and to proclaim these facts in their proper settings; to preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God.
However, there still remained the future consummation of the Kingdom associated with the
appearance of Jesus as the son of Man with power and great glory to exercise the universal
authority and judgment received from his father. The consummation was but the last of a series of
events of which the others were the saving facts.

The Gospels are presented as God’s revelation to human kind through the person of Jesus Christ.
The God of the Bible is the God who reveals Himself in mighty acts; the God of the fathers who
had revealed Himself to Israel, in the never forgotten events of Exodus and now revealed Himself
in mightier acts of Jesus Christ, by which a great redemption had been received in the person of
Christ. This was the burden of the earliest apostolic proclamation that we must turn to learn what
the gospel behind the gospels was. As such, the main focus of four Gospels is manifestation and
proclamation. They tell the story of the coming of the saviour and his person and work. this
proclamation is the main focus of the apostles as demonstrated in Acts – which is continuation of
the gospel according to Luke. This proclamation is referred to by its Greek name Kerygma. More
information of it can be gathered from: -
1. The Pauline and other New Testament Epistles
2. The reports of early Christians preaching in Acts of Apostles
NOTE 1:
It is worth noting the importance of the passion, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, and
the following day of Pentecost. These events set Jesy Christ as unique person. They developed
curiosity among people who became interested in knowing who Jesus was. This led to further
research by way of interviewing those who has firsthand information about Jesus.
1.4.4 The Oral Gospel /Oral transmission
Oral tradition refers to the transmission of the life and teachings of Jesus by word of mouth before
it was put into writing. It is the form in the life and teachings of Jesus were existed and transmitted
before they were put into writing. The oral tradition was aimed at demonstrating and defending
Jesus’ messiahship. Engaged in ongoing debates with their fellow Jews about the validity of Jesus’
messiahship, and the eager to convince others that he was God’s chief agent for world redemption,
the first generations of Christians quickly produced a large body of oral tradition about Jesus.
Much of these depended on the extent to which the key people could remember the life and
teachings of Jesus Christ. The apostles or their associates were very key. The apostles were the
eye witness of Jesus Christ. It was not until almost forty after his death however that some of these
orally transmitted reminiscences of Jesus were first organized into a written biographical account.

The gospels, and the New Testament at large, were written much later since nobody saw any point
of writing. The good news was transmitted orally first by Jesus and later by his apostles/disciples.
For a number of years after the resurrection of Jesus, no attempt was made to write the life of Jesus
because people who had known him were able to give firsthand information from their own
personal experience. More so the first Christians were far too busy preaching the gospel of Jesus
to stop and start writing the gospel down. They expected him to return very soon and therefore
saw no point of writing.
However, as time went on, and Jesus did not return, attempts were made to produce some written
records. The first verses of Luke’s gospel tell of these. Only a few of such writings now survive.
The four in the New Testament survived properly because they were the best. The earliest of our
surviving gospels, that of Mark is believed to have been published about AD 65.

This does not mean that when the attempts were made to record the gospel the writers had only far
off memories to help them. The years between the resurrection and first gospels writing were full
of activities. Like other Jewish Rabbis, Jesus often taught his disciples to learn by heart
(memorise) and in verse form. These teachings would be handed on in the same way by the
apostles to their converts and without alterations. Similarly, stories of Jesus would be told and
retold accurately. People in the East are known for their good memories. This is possibly due to
the scarcity of books.
In addition to this, constant repetition, the converts before baptism were required to learn by heart
a set form or summary of the main events in Jesus’ life. For example, Paul himself a convert,
said to his own converts in Corinth, “I delivered unto you, first of all that which also I received (1
Cor. 15:3; Rom 6:17; 1 Cor. 11:23; and 2 Tim. 1:13, 2 Tim. 2:2).

1.4.4. 1 Reasons for not recording the gospel

i. Jesus was giving his teachings in parables which were easier to remember. Therefore,
people chose to memorize the gospel and tell it as such without writing.
ii. they expected Jesus to come back very soon. Jesus took too long to come back.

1.5 From Oral to Written Form of Gospels

1.5.1 Reasons for committing the gospels into writing
When Jesus was alive, nothing was written by anyone about Him. Stories about Jesus started in
the form of oral tradition. Several factors motivated the need to consolidate Christian traditions
in written form. This marked the transition from oral to written form.
i. Mainly to preserve accurate message of Jesus. This is explicitly state in the preface to
Luke’s gospel. They were afraid of the danger of oral tradition: some facts might have been
forgotten or facts tampered with or distorted.
ii. Unique significance of the original witnesses of the events regarding Christian faith and practice.
The disciples/apostles who were eye witness to the life and teachings of Jesus Christ were
 aging and dying one after another. This posed the danger of leaving behind those who did
not have firsthand information that they decided to record the gospel.
iii. To guard against heresy and pseudo-gospels: To guard against heretical teachings:
emergence of heretical sects, some of them with their own “sacred books” hence the need for
the church to establish scope of canonicity to guide believers. Such teachings include Gnosticism,
Montanism, Arianism, etc (This will become clear in history of Christianity I)
iv. Widened Christianity as well as rapid expansion of Christianity into the Gentile Roman-
Hellenistic world. The gospels were written to be read by the increased Christian
communities far off. Considering the gentle factor, the oral tradition which was heavily
Jewish-Palestinian would be difficult to maintain
v. To be in conformity with the Old Testament, which was read as scripture
vi. Persecution of Christians: just like some of the apostolic epistles, some parts of the gospels were
directed towards encouraging Christians from committing apostacy.

1.5.2 Sources of information for the writers of the NT gospels: a clarity

✓ memories of the apostles and their close associates
✓ letters from one church leaders to another or to a church congregation. Many of these
epistles have survived. They tell us much about the nature of the Christian faith in this period.
✓ written summaries of some Jesus sayings and collections of proof- texts from the OT used
by Christian teachers in relation to incidents in the life of Jesus

All these materials together with the first attempt to write a life of Jesus, was available as a source of
information for the writers of the NT gospels. They made use of it as modern reporters do with variations
according to the public each was writing for

MATERIALS IN THE GOSPEL

Content:
1. sayings – teaching of Jesus
2. narratives – stories about Jesus xt

difficulties: interpretations – hermeneutic, exegesis

unique genre
NATURE OF THE GOSPEL
Things which make it difficulty
1. Jesus - never wrote the gospels
2. They 4 gospels
Why:?
Pragmatic reasons – pragma = practical reasons , = depends on the needs of the audiences , aims,,
Hermeneutical models
Re- tell the gospel = relevant to 21st century,
Hermeneutics, exegesis, comes in: what does it mean TO US?
RELEVANCE/IMPORRTANCE/ TEACHING/ LESSSON
NOT BIOGRAPHIES
MEMOIORS OF THE APOSTLES
MEANINING:
1. SELECTIVITY
2. ARRANGEMENT
3. ADAPTATION -