Gospel Formation

explain how the Gospels

were formed.
explain why were the Gospels not
written immediately after Jesus’
death and resurrection.
Gospels were written some 30
years after the events they
describe happened.
 Took place
around A.D.
30

But the FIRST WRITTEN

GOSPEL appeared only around
A.D. 60-70
Stage 1: Jesus’ Life in Palestine
A.D. 1-30
Stage 2: Oral Tradition (A.D.
30-64)
 The Apostles proclaimed the
Good News by word of mouth.
Faith in Jesus was
the core teaching
that the first preachers passed on
to the world
The apostles gained many
followers for Christ.
 Kerygma

The original
proclamation of the
apostles after
Pentecost.
Partial written compilations of
Jesus’ parables,
miracles, and sayings
and an outline
of the
Passion Narratives were
already being written and
passed around.
Why did it take
so long to write
the Gospels ?
The people preferred
the spoken “living”
word to the written
word.
The Christians did not feel
the need to record the facts
about Jesus’ life since the
proclamation about Jesus
was confined to Palestine
and its neighboring
countries.
The early Christians
expected the Risen Christ
to come back soon,
hence they saw no need
to record the accounts of
His life and teachings.
 What made
them write the
Gospels?
• The Apostles and the original
witnesses were dying or being
martyred.
• The Good News was being preached
to people farther and farther away
from Jerusalem.
• When the Christians realized that
Jesus would not be coming back soon
as they had originally expected.
Stage 3: The Written Gospels
(A.D. 65-100)
 The evangelists, the writers
of the Gospels, drew their
materials from the oral
preaching of the apostles
and earliest disciples of Jesus
as well as from partial
written compilations.
 The evangelists
organized the materials
according to their own
particular sources and
purpose.
Biblical Inspiration- refers
to the Holy Spirit’s divine
activity of superintending the
authors, editors, and compilers of
the Bible that allowed them to
use their own personalities and
writing styles to communicate
 explain how the Gospels
were formed.
explain why were the Gospels not
written immediately after Jesus’
death and resurrection.