The Formation of the Four Gospels

Since the four Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—begin the New Testament, readers often assume that these works were the earliest written products of the Christian church. This assumption is often coupled with the beliefs that the authors of the four Gospels were eyewitnesses of the events they narrate and that the composition of the Gospels was a relatively simple process of preserving in writing what they had seen and heard firsthand. Such assumptions about the Gospels, however, are inaccurate. All the letters of Paul in the New Testament were written prior to any of the Gospels being completed. The authors of the Gospels, or at least the persons responsible for the final form of the Gospels, were almost certainly not eyewitnesses; and the Gospels themselves are the end products of traditions that were transmitted and preserved in various forms, both oral and written.

From Oral Traditions to Written Records

Jesus of Nazareth left behind no written records. He was not an author, but a teacher and preacher. His method of communication was exclusively oral. Furthermore, there is no indication that Jesus expected or desired that his message would be preserved in writing and passed along for generations. He was addressing a first-century audience, dealing with their concerns and situations. The reason his stories and sayings are available to modern readers is that some of his followers considered them important enough to remember and pass on.

These Jesus traditions were almost certainly preserved at first only in oral form. This statement may seem surprising, even incredulous, to readers today. We live in a highly literate society in which the printed media are extremely important. Books, newspapers, magazines, and journals are found in almost every household. Computers, a relatively recent communication tool, present visual representations of words on computer monitors. For many of us, even a trip to the grocery store necessitates a written shopping list, lest we forget the items we need to purchase. First-century Palestine, however, was primarily an oral culture. The ability to read and write was a privilege of the upper class of Palestinian society, as was true of the Mediterranean world in general. Jesus and the crowds to whom he spoke were primarily peasants. They were not a part of the educated elite. The Gospels give scant information about Jesus' education and literacy. The Gospel of Luke contains the story of Jesus as a precocious twelve-year-old engaged in dialogue with the teachers in the Temple. Luke reports, "And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers" (2:47). If this story is historically accurate, it still tells us nothing about Jesus' formal education. Likewise, the additional statement that "Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor" (Luke 2:52) is no evidence for Jesus' ability to read or write. A person can be wise, yet remain uneducated and illiterate.

Later in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus during his ministry in Galilee is described as reading from the scroll of Isaiah in the synagogue at Nazareth, "where he had been brought up" (4:16-30). If this passage is historically authentic, then we certainly have here evidence of Jesus' ability to read. Many scholars, however, have raised questions about the historical reliability of what is described in this passage. Luke 4:16-30 seems to be an expansion of Mark 6:1-6. The Markan text tells of Jesus teaching in the synagogue in his hometown and the ensuing astonishment of his listeners. Mark does not mention, though, that Jesus read in the synagogue. One must, therefore, use the Lukan passage with caution as evidence of Jesus' literacy.

On the other hand, a passage in the Gospel of John seems to imply that Jesus was educated. In reporting one of Jesus' teaching episodes during his ministry, the Gospel reports that people were astonished at his teaching, saying, "How does this man have such learning, when he has never been taught?" (7:15). The phrase translated in the NRSV as "have such learning" literally means "know what is written" or "know letters." In the context of first-century Judaism, the people's question concerns Jesus' familiarity with and knowledge of the Jewish law. They are puzzled about how one could have such a deep understanding of the scripture, yet lack formal scribal training in the law (cf. Mark 1:22).

The only passage in the New Testament that speaks about Jesus writing anything is also in John. The story of the woman who is caught in adultery, John 7:53–8:11 (the passage is textually suspect), states that twice during the confrontation with the religious leaders who brought the woman to Jesus, he "bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground" (8:6, 8). What he wrote is not known. Once again, one cannot draw any certain conclusions from this text about Jesus' educational or literacy level. Reviewing all the evidence, the safest conclusion about Jesus is that he possibly, perhaps even probably, had rudimentary skills in reading and writing. Any claims beyond that are mere speculation.

The New Testament likewise provides us little information about the educational background of Jesus' followers. The book of Acts records the amazement of the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem at the boldness of the disciples Peter and John in their teaching and preaching. They considered the two to be "uneducated and ordinary men" (Acts 4:13). Like the description of Jesus in John 7:15, this statement probably means that they lacked formal scribal training in the Jewish scriptures. Aside from this episode, the New Testament provides no information about the educational sophistication of Jesus' disciples. As will be discussed later, none of the Gospels was likely written by a disciple of Jesus, so these literary documents are no evidence of the disciples' literary skills. What the Gospels do tell us about the earliest followers of Jesus is that they were almost all working-class persons—fishermen, tax collectors, housewives. In ancient Palestine formal education for children was rare. Shaye Cohen claims that "in all likelihood elementary education was the responsibility of the family" and "generally in the ancient world elementary education did not go beyond paternal instruction in a craft." Thus most people in the ancient world never became skilled at reading and writing, although quite a few probably had rudimentary skills necessary for business transactions.

The basic oral nature of ancient Mediterranean societies, then, explains why the earliest traditions about Jesus would have been oral traditions. Stories about Jesus and collections of his teachings would have been passed along from one person to the next and from one community to another. These oral traditions would have been used in many different ways in the early Christian communities. When Jesus' followers were preaching to outsiders, they would have told stories about Jesus. When they were teaching new converts about their faith, they would have recounted Jesus' sayings and teachings. When controversies arose among the early Christians, someone would have remembered an incident in the life of Jesus or one of his teachings that would help guide the church. In each of these settings, as well as others, the early Christian community preserved, shaped, and passed on events and teachings from the life of Jesus.

Oral traditions are more fluid, that is, less fixed, than written traditions. As stories are told and retold they are intentionally and unintentionally shaped and reshaped by the tellers. Different settings for the tradition require changes in the form and content of the tradition. For example, a student who attends a campus lecture will describe that lecture in an informal conversation with her friends differently from the way that she would report on the lecture to her classmates in a formal setting. If the student were to describe the lecture to another group of friends a week later, the description would be different still. Thus both in new situations and over time, oral traditions change. Such variations in traditions can be seen in the Gospels where different versions of sayings and events occur (for example, compare the different versions of Jesus' teachings on divorce in Matt 5:31-32; 19:9; Mark 10:11-12; and Luke 16:18). Some of these variations arose during the oral stages of the tradition, while other changes arose during the written stages of the material.

As the traditions about Jesus were passed on, not only did changes in the material occur, but selectivity naturally took place. The sayings and stories with which the immediate hearers identified or which addressed their concerns or needs were the traditions that were preserved. Many of the teachings and activities of Jesus were lost as they fell into disuse and were forgotten. Note the comment of the author of the Gospel of John: "But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written" (21:25). The book of Acts contains an example of a saying of Jesus that is not found in any Gospel but was remembered by the early Christian community: "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35).

Eventually, the early Christian community began to preserve in written form some of the Jesus traditions. By the end of the first century, all four Gospels presently in the canon had been written. Other collections of sayings of Jesus were likely in existence as well. These additional collections included such works as the Q document and the Gospel of Thomas, both of which will be discussed later. If at first the church had been content with oral traditions, why did it begin to produce written records?

Several factors seem to have contributed to the move from oral to written traditions. First, the earliest followers of Jesus apparently expected him to return to earth very soon after his death and resurrection to bring to fulfillment the coming reign of God. Even the apostle Paul expected Jesus' return shortly, likely within his own lifetime. As long as the early Christians operated under that expectation, little need existed for preserving the traditions of Jesus for the long term. Why worry about preserving material for future generations when the end was expected during the current generation? As the years passed and the expected imminent return of Jesus did not occur, the early church realized the need for a more permanent preservation of the traditions.

A second factor contributing to the need for written records was the death of the earliest followers of Jesus. As long as eyewitnesses of the life of Jesus were alive, they served somewhat as a verification of the authenticity of stories about Jesus. If questions arose about what Jesus said or did, someone could ask one of his disciples. When they began to die, however, another authoritative source was needed. Written records helped fill this need.

The missionary needs of the early church was a third factor that likely led to the development of written records about Jesus. As the early Christians moved out beyond Palestine and scattered throughout the Mediterranean world spreading their message about Jesus and making converts to the Christian faith, they needed resources to use to teach the new converts about Christian beliefs and practices. The collected Jesus traditions would have been a valuable educational resource for the church.

The growth of the Christian movement contributed to a fourth reason for the written collections of Jesus traditions. Alternate understandings of Jesus and the Christian faith began to arise and compete with each other. What were the acceptable views about Jesus and his teachings? Which traditions about Jesus or interpretations of Jesus were valid? The four canonical Gospels helped answer these questions, although they did not always provide the same answers. These four Gospels represent four different interpretations of the life of Jesus. They helped shape the early Christians' view of Jesus and eventually were seen as the orthodox or correct understanding of Jesus.

These factors, along with others, resulted in the formation of written records about Jesus. One should not assume, however, that an orderly progression occurred from oral traditions to written records. On the contrary, even after written Gospels appeared, they struggled for recognition and authority alongside the oral traditions. For example, Papias, an early bishop in the church in Asia Minor (ca. 60–130 CE), is quoted by the fourth-century church historian Eusebius as saying, "For I did not suppose that information from books would help me so much as the word of a living and surviving voice." Even after the written Gospels appeared, then, some church leaders preferred the oral traditions over the written records about Jesus.

Thus the development of the New Testament Gospels was the result of a long and circuitous process. Initially oral traditions were shaped, altered, passed along, reshaped, and used in a variety of ways and situations. Written collections of sayings and/or stories eventually appeared, competing in some instances with oral traditions, but finally gaining dominance over oral records. In the New Testament, the final form of these Jesus traditions was the Gospels.

What Is a Gospel?

For the person familiar with the New Testament, the answer to the question "What is a Gospel?" might seem obvious: a Gospel is one of the four writings in the New Testament that describe the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. That answer is true, but it is not sufficient because it does not tell us what kind of writings the Gospels are. Furthermore, it limits the term gospel to the New Testament writings alone. The Greek word euangelion, translated as "gospel," means "good news." This word was used among the ancient Greeks for the announcement of military victories or other instances of good fortune. Inscriptions from the Roman imperial period apply the word euangelion to the life and activities of the emperor. The Priene inscription of 9 BCE, for example, declares that the birthday of Caesar Augustus was for the world "the beginning of his good messages [or 'good news']."

For the early Christians the story of Jesus was the "good news" that they proclaimed to the world. In the New Testament, particularly in the writings of Paul, euangelion is used to describe the message about Jesus that was the content of the church's preaching and teaching. The Gospel of Mark, for example, opens with the statement, "The beginning of the good news (euangelion) of Jesus Christ." When written works describing the life and teachings of Jesus began to appear, the word euangelion was a fitting designation for these works. In this way the word gospel came to be used to describe certain writings that circulated in the Christian communities.

An examination of the various works labeled "gospels" in the early church reveals that the term was applied to works with widely differing forms and contents. Some "gospels," like the four in the New Testament, are primarily narrative works, containing stories about Jesus and his teachings. Other "gospels," such as the Gospel of Thomas, are collections of sayings attributed to Jesus, with little or no narrative material connecting the sayings. Are all of these works appropriately designated "gospels"?

On that question scholars disagree. Some scholars argue that the canonical Gospels should define the characteristics of the gospel genre. Those who follow this approach often conclude that gospels are narratives that provide information about the life, teachings, and activities of Jesus of Nazareth. One recent definition of the genre of the canonical Gospels, for instance, states, "A Gospel is a narrative, fashioned out of selected traditions, that focuses on the activity and speech of Jesus as a way to reveal his character and develops a dramatic plot that culminates in the stories of his passion and resurrection." This definition virtually eliminates any of the noncanonical gospels from being considered as authentic gospels. Some are excluded because they are not narratives but collections of sayings or dialogues (such as the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Mary); others are excluded because even though they contain narrative materials they focus only on one aspect of the life of Jesus rather than on his entire life and death. Examples of the latter type would be the Infancy Gospel of Thomas and the Protevangelium of James. In chapter 7 of this book we will raise again the question of the appropriateness of the term gospel for these works that are not a part of the canon and discuss the contents of some of them. Because the focus of our study, however, is the canonical Gospels, we will concentrate on the use of the word gospel as it applies to them.