the new testament

Question 1

the gospels

Answer 1

• The new testament begins with the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John)
• Mathew Mark Luke and John are known as evangelists.

Question 2

what is an evangalist

Answer 2

• An evangelist preaches to people with the hope of converting them.

Question 3

what does gospel mean

Answer 3

good news

Question 4

what is the good news

Answer 4

• Jesus brought the Good News, and said that God loves the Jews and that he will always stay with him
• The Good News was that the love of God was present in the world. Jesus brought that Good News.
• The apostles continued to bring the Good News after Jesus had died

Question 5

how did the gospel writers share the good news

Answer 5

they revealed it through Jesus’s words and actions

Question 6

synoptic gospels

Answer 6

• The Gospels of Matthew Mark and Luke are known as the Synoptic Gospels.
• Synoptic is a Greek word that means “to see together.” It is used to refer to the three gospels that present the life, passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
• These three Gospels contain a lot of similar information. They present the life of Jesus in a similar way.
• Studies have shown that of the three synoptics, Mark was the first one to be written, around 70 C.E.

Question 7

timline

Answer 7

• Matthew was probably composed in the late 70s or 80s
• Luke in the late 80s.
• No original copies of the gospels have been found.
• No gospels were written at the time of Jesus. They were written at least 50 years after his death.

Question 8

context

Answer 8

• The Gospels were written at the time of Roman persecution of the Jews.
• In 70CE the Romans tore down the Jewish Temple.

Question 9

mark

Answer 9

• We do not have to be scholars to notice that in the gospels of Matthew and Luke there are passages almost identical or similar to those found in Mark.
• Mark was written first but was the shortest
• We can conclude that one of the sources that Matthew and Luke used in writing their gospels was the already written Gospel of Mark.
• There are also other stories and sayings common to Matthew and Luke that are not found in Mark.
• This suggests that these two evangelists used yet another source which Mark did not have access to.
• The birth of Jesus is recorded in Matthew and Luke but not in Mark

Question 10

the q source

Answer 10

• This tells us that Matthew and Luke had access to another source.
• The source used by Matthew and Luke, which appears not to have survived, is referred to as the “Q” source (from the German word for source, quelle.)
• Information from Mark (1st gospel writer), is found in Matthew and Luke.
• Information in Matthew and Luke that isn’t in Mark must have come from some other source.
• We call that, Q Source.
• The Gospel of John is not a Synoptic Gospel.
• John writes about Jesus, but differently from Matthew Mark and Luke.

Question 11

john

Answer 11

• Tradition dates John’s Gospel somewhere between 70 A.D. (the destruction of the Jerusalem temple) and 100 A.D., the end of John’s life.
• John contains more interpretation of the Jesus story.
• For reasons only John may have known, he leaves out several events found in the Synoptics

Question 12

extra

Answer 12

• They are 4 accounts of the life, death and resurrection of the man Jesus.
• They differ from each other.
• They contain overlapping information.
• They are texts that are the foundation for Christian beliefs.
• The gospels are a perception of Jesus’s life, taking accounts of people who knew him
• They are designed to tell stories and to share the messages of Jesus
• Matthew and Luke’s gospel are the longest
• The infancy narratives is the story of Jesus’s birth
• John provides a more poetic interpretation
• He goes to great lengths to make the readers view Jesus as a Messiah