Iconography Of The Gospels 3
Previous posts: Iconography Of The Gospels, Iconography Of The Gospels 2, The Doctor’s Strange Omissions
Until now I’ve been talking about the “gospels” as if each of synoptic gospels is a slightly different version of the others. Now I want to offer another iconography altogether that shows these as being totally different kinds of literary works.
Mark: The Only Gospel
Although we call them all “gospels” only Mark actually calls his account a gospel, and his exact words are: Ἀρχὴ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” It’s interesting to note that the word “gospel” doesn’t even occur in Luke and John.
Matthew: A Second Pentateuch
Matthew begins, Βίβλος γενέσεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ υἱοῦ Δαυὶδ υἱοῦ Ἀβραάμ, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, Son of David, Son of Abraham.” Matthew is in many ways modeled on the Law and The Prophets. It begins with a genealogy. It is divided into five great discourse, reminiscent of the Pentateuch. There is much repetition of phrases like, “These things happened so that the words of the prophets might be fulfilled.” In other words, if Matthew wasn’t modeling his “book” after the book of Moses, he was at least going to great lengths to show that Jesus and his ministry were a continuation of the Jewish religious history.
Luke: A Greco-Roman Narrative
Luke begins his “gospel” by calling it a διήγησις, that is, a narrative. This word only occurs once in the New Testament. Perhaps someone else could define its use. And in the opening of Acts, Luke refers back to his narrative calling it a λόγος, most certainly not the kind of logos that John was thinking of in his gospel but simply an account or report. Green in his commentary on Luke sees it as modeled on the Greco-Roman narratives with 1:1-4 being only a small part of a fuller introduction from 1:1-2:52.
John: A Second Creation
The opening of John echoes the opening of the book of Genesis. There is a new birth. A new manna. A new exodus. A new passover. Everything of the first covenant is reborn in the new covenant. While Luke is a narrative, John might be called an anti-narrative. Everything is organized thematically and chronological history takes a back seat to teaching theology.
Summary
The discourse genre of each of these accounts of the life of Christ gives us some hint as to their particular distinctives. Matthew is a history book firmly rooted in the Jewish history tradition. Mark is a message of good news about Jesus Christ the Son of God. Luke wrote first a narrative of “all that Jesus began to do and teach” and then continued with a sequel: the book of Acts. John’s story is least like history. Lumping them all under the category “gospel” disguises their individual distinctives.
What is it about the Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that distinguishes them from one another in your eyes?
David – I really appreciated your delineation and explanations. I am reading the “gospels” at the moment and have often wondered about what distinguishes them in general. You are so very clever and I would also nominate you for best thinking blog, and impressive use of greek in text. Love, Mom
very nice summary!
I liked your fine tuning of the genre or narrative types of the Gospels. As you say John is very different from the “synoptic Gospels,” and is therefore difficult to compare. There are other non-linear narratives in the OT such as Genesis chapters 1-11, that would be similar to John in their organization by themes. It was a common ancient near eastern style.
I think that much of the perceived differences in the synoptic Gospels comes from the common interpretive error of reading them as if they were written today. At the time of Christ, there was no mass media, no photocopiers, no radio, no cassette tapes, no Television and no internet. It is entirely plausible that Jesus preached the same sermons many times, and used his best stories and illustrations over and over to make his points. Because of this “recycling” of material the same or very similar stories would be used on multiple occasions.
Usually, these small bits of material Jesus used are referred to as “pericopes.” These are the building blocks of Jesus’ teaching that are hung on a more or less linear skeleton in each of the synoptics. In reality within this linear frame work the pericopes are not necessarily arranged chronologically, but are chosen thematically by the Gospel writer to reinforce the main lesson behind the event from Jesus’ life that he (the author) chose to include in his Gospel. It is through study of the pericopes that accompany an event that gives us clues as to why the author chose to include it in his gospel. In this way the synoptics are not really so different from the Gospel of John.
what are the stories that can be found in 3 synoptic gospels?
jovin, you might check out NT Gateway. I’m sure there is information like that available.