The four
gospels
The Gospels in the New Testament are accounts of
the life, teaching, works, death and resurrection of Jesus. There are four
different gospels. But none of them separately provide a complete life story.
They are written by four different persons: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Among
them, Matthew and John were among the 12 disciples of Jesus. While Mark and
Luke did not belong to the group. Matthew was a tax collector, and John was a fisherman.
(Matthew 9:9; 4:21). They both were Jews. Mark also was a Jew. He was a follower
of Apostle Peter. Luke was a gentile physician or a Hellenised Jew. He was with
Apostle Paul. Matthew and John gave firsthand accounts of what they saw, heard
and understood directly from Jesus. Mark and Luke wrote based on testimonies of
those who witnessed the life of Jesus.
Their targeted readers were different. Some scholars and early Christian writers (such as Irenaeus, Origen, and Jerome) suggest that Matthew wrote his gospel originally in Hebrew or Aramaic for the Jewish Christians and later translated it into Greek. But modern scholarship argues that the Gospel was written directly in Greek, possibly using earlier sources like the Gospel of Mark. His purpose was to prove that Jesus was the promised Messiah, the “Son of David”. He used the genealogy and the Old Testament prophecies for this purpose.