Once a month, you’re going to hear from our authors, from our team, or from a guest on how we study the Bible, what resources we use, and what questions we ask. Submit your questions related to these topics by filling out the form here! This month, we are sharing insights from Angie Smith’s Bible study, Seamless, which explores the seamless thread connecting the people, places, and promises of the Bible.
Have you ever wondered why we have four gospels? Angie Smith explains—with her characteristic humor—insight into the four separate accounts in these thoughts adapted from her Bible study, Seamless.
God’s chosen people have been waiting for the promised Messiah to come, and 400 years have passed since the time of the prophet Malachi.
In those 400 years, the Greeks conquered the promised land. The Jews temporarily took over again, and then the Romans conquered the entire Mediterranean world. As the New Testament begins, Caesar Augustus rules the Roman Empire, and he has appointed several officials to rule over different parts of Israel.
Many prophets had described what the Messiah would be like, where and to whom He would be born, where He would travel, and other details about Him. In every history book you will find evidence that Caesar Augustus was a real person, along with King Herod and many others from this time period. The story isn’t a fairy tale; it’s documented fact.
The New Testament opens with four books called the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They give four accounts of the life of Christ given by different men. Each was written to a specific audience and with a slightly different purpose. The first three are called the synoptic Gospels because of how similar they are. The Book of John takes a little bit of a different approach, and we’ll get to that one soon.
Matthew was a Jewish follower of Christ who was writing to his fellow Jews. He was appealing to God’s chosen people a few decades after Jesus died. He wrote to convince them that Christ was the Messiah for whom they had been waiting.
Over and over throughout his book, Matthew emphasizes that Jesus is the King, and that He came to fulfill what the prophets had predicted about the Messiah. Using the Old Testament prophets Matthew is point-by-point laying out his case to show the Jews that Jesus fulfilled all of their prophecies.
The writer of the third Gospel (we’ll come back to Mark) is a doctor who loves long walks on the beach and playing Yahtzee by candlelight.
Well, some of that is true.
He was a doctor.
Remember how Matthew was a Jewish believer who preached about Jesus to the Jews? Dr. Luke is coming from a different perspective altogether. In fact, he’s the only Gospel writer who is a Gentile.
Also, he is Greek. And we know that he was well educated and a class-A observer, which I sure do appreciate. He cares about the details and it shows in his writing.
Mark wrote the second Gospel. His goal was to tell the Romans about Jesus. Mark is the shortest Gospel and is certainly the most practical. He portrays Jesus as a Servant, and spends a lot of time focusing on the deeds of Christ.
Mark displays a very matter-of-fact tone. He doesn’t spend time telling about genealogy or prophecy. The Romans were strictly action oriented. So Mark told about Jesus as: “Here’s the Guy and this is what He did.” That’s what his audience cared about—just show me the evidence and don’t waste my time.
I’ll be honest with you at the risk of you calling me ugly names. Mark’s just not my favorite writer of the bunch. It’s because I like the narrative, the details, the build-up that comes along with, say, Dr. Detail (Luke). Don’t feel bad, Mark. Your classmates probably voted you “most likely to be efficient” and plenty of folks think you’re swell.
I know, I know…we haven’t talked about John yet. And that’s a shame, because he’s pretty amazing. His Gospel is different from the other three and is one of the most beautiful writings in all of Scripture.
Up until now, we’ve seen three different writers direct their work to three different groups, but John has a different plan: He’s writing for everyone. Jew or Gentile, Roman or Greek, he’s intent on translating for us the most important word we can associate with a true relationship with Christ: believe.
John’s Gospel reads differently from the others. His telling of the Jesus story is (again, Mark, this is nothing personal) my favorite. If you care about people believing in Christ as the Son of God, you might just share the story of a guy who struggled in his faith.
I would be hard pressed to tell you I have a favorite story in the Bible, mostly because I have issues with this kind of commitment. I mean, I might change my mind before you carve the tombstone, so let’s play it cool for now. But still. It’s so good.
In John 20:19-29, John tells us the story of Thomas. In truth, he’s the disciple I relate to most. He’s gotten a bad rap for being a doubter, but he was actually a very loyal follower of Christ. He’s packing a punch with his little tirade, but my hunch is that the root of it is not unbelief; rather, it’s a desperate desire to believe fully.
And I get it. I don’t question God because I want to prove He doesn’t exist. I question because I want to rest in unshakeable faith.
I won’t get to see the evidence Thomas did, but it’s worth noting that despite all of his ranting and threatening, Scripture never tells us that Thomas actually touched the risen Christ.
Whatever he saw was enough for him to declare Jesus as his Lord and his God. That gentle reminder weaves its way through all of my days. I believe Jesus says to each of us, “You may not get the evidence you say you need to believe in Me, but rest assured, love, I’ll give you enough.”
Oh, John. What would we do without you?
We want to hear from you! Do you have a favorite among the four Gospels? Did you know these differences among the authors and their intended audiences?
Read more from Angie Smith’s Seamless to hear more about these Gospels as well as how we read the entire story of Scripture together as one seamless thread!