GOSPEL INFORMATION

• Mark

  Author: John Mark of Jerusalem
• Apostle

  Matthew
• Physician and companion of Paul

  Luke
• John


  John
• Mark


  Bilingual (Aramaic & Greek) Christian
• Matthew 


  Bilingual (Aramaic & Greek) early Jewish Christian
• Luke


  Christian Gentile convert; well educated Greek
• John 


  The"beloved disciple"
• Mark 


  Audience: mostly Gentiles
• Matthew 


  Audience: better educated Jews
• Luke 


  Audience: wealthier Gentile Christians
• John


  Audience: mixed, mostly Jews, some Gentiles, Samaritans, etc.
• Mark


  Place of writing: Rome
• Matthew 


  Place of writing: Galilee
• Luke 


  Place of writing: Greece
• John 


  Place of writing: Galilee or Syria
• Mark

  Time of writing: 60's or early 70's
• Matthew 


  Time of writing: late 70's or 80's
• Luke


  Time of writing: mid to late 80's
• John

  Time of writing: main edition 90's
• Mark


  Jesus, the Suffering Servant
• Matthew 


  Jesus, the "Emmanuel", the expected Messiah
• Luke 


  Jesus, the savior of all humanity
• John 


  Jesus, the "Word of God"
• Mark


  16 chapters
• Matthew 


  28 chapters
• Luke 


  24 chapters
• John


  21 chapters
• Oral Tradition


  Before the evangelists wrote the gospels, the apostles, and the first Christian preachers had been spreading by word of mouth the good news about Jesus’ words and deed. And we call this oral tradition.
• The evangelists were generally editors of the “pericopes”.
• The task of the evangelists is to uphold the gospel tradition as spokespersons for the church.
• The literary form “gospel” is a unique product of early Christianity.
• A recital of the historical narrative of the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ which make up the core of the preaching of the early Christians.
• This narrative is prefaced by some account of Jesus’ public ministry: a selection of words and deeds of Jesus as they were understood after and in the light of the resurrection.
• In Matthew and Luke, this is prefaced by an “infancy narrative”, which looks like one, but it is not a report on the circumstances of Jesus’ birth, but a theological reflection on the meaning of the person and birth of Jesus.
• EUANGELION has the special meaning of “message of salvation”.
• The Greek word gospel is “EUANGELION (EU= good); (angelion= news/message)
• The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known as the Synoptic Gospels because they include many of the same stories, often in the same sequence, and sometimes exactly the same wording.