Gospels
| For it is so written in |
| Scriptures |
| Reference |
| Analysis |
The gospels are books/collections of writings/scribblings, on looseleaf that "document" the birth, life, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus of Nazareth. Most Christians only know of the 4 canonical gospels: Matthew, Gospel of Mark, Gospel of Luke, and John. Of these 4, the first 3 are known as the synoptic gospels - they say basically the same thing with different territorial twists thrown in - while John and the myriad Apocryphal gospels can be quite different.
The word gospel comes from the Olde Englishe gōd-spell (gōd [GOOD] + spell [MESSAGE]) which is a literal translation of the Greek word εὐαγγέλιον or euangelion (eu [GOOD] + angelion [MESSAGE]). This was Latinised as evangelion from which we get the words evangelical and evangelism; the alleged authors of the canonical gospels are therefore known as the four evangelists.
Contents |
[edit] Canonical gospels
The first canonical gospel written was the book of Mark. Matthew and Luke were written using Mark as a reference, though it has been proposed that all three of them used the Q document—a collection of Jesus' sayings written in Greek— as a reference. The Gospel of John's approach is very different: it is postulated that John is writing to Greek-speaking Jews who are not believers in Jesus, and to strengthen the faith of Christians. Essentially, John was our first real mass-marketed evangelist.
All of the canonical gospels were originally written in Greek, even though Jesus spoke Aramaic. The gospels have been translated over and over, through word of mouth and writing.
[edit] Synoptic gospels
Of the four canonical gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke share similar stories, similar descriptions of events, and even exact phrases from time to time. John remains the odd man out, sharing little material at all with the other three.
When the three synoptic gospels are set side by side, academics are able to work out theories on the relationship between the three texts. The most generally accepted relationship is that Mark is the earliest text written, and that both Matthew and Luke had a copy of it when writing. Then there is material that is unique to Mark and Matthew, and Mark and Luke; and material that is unique to Luke and Matthew is sometimes called the Q document.
[edit] Possible audiences for the gospels
According to academic research[1], each of the four canonical gospels as well as extra biblical gospels (e.g. Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Peter, and Gospel of Mary) were written for different churches and at slightly different times.
- The Gospel of Mark, generally assumed to be the earliest of the canonical gospels (c70CE)[2] remains a Jewish focused text, with a largely human Jesus.
- The Gospel of Matthew (70-100 CE)[3], generally considered a Jewish apologetic, stressing Jewish law.
- The Gospel of Luke (80-100 CE)[4], often attributed to Luke the Physician, along with Acts was written for Peter and Paul's church - the church which was to become the dominant player in early Christendom.
- The Gospel of John (c100 CE), is considered by most scholars to be a Gnostic text.[citation needed]
It should be noted that there are no manuscripts going back to these dates nor any reference to actual content of a Gospel until the 130s so there is no proof of the Gospels existing before 130 CE.
[edit] Non-canonical gospels
There are well over 20 gospels of Jesus Christ. However, the Catholic Church found it necessary to leave certain ones out. The gospel of Mary Magdalene, possibly the most famous Apocrypha for example, depicts her being second to Jesus rather than Peter. It also insinuates that Mary and Jesus were lovers, and forms the basis of alternative interpretations and conspiracies such as in Holy Blood, Holy Grail. In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus asserts that the idea of hell is not for an eternity, rather a time that meets the severity of the punishment. A gospel according to Judas (dating to around the 3rd/4th Century AD) was discovered in the 1970s but has only really been studied since the late 90s. This alters the narrative slightly to portray Judas' actions towards the end of Jesus' story not as a betrayal, but as following the instructions of Jesus himself. Considering that it is canonical Christian belief that it was God's plan to have Jesus brutally murdered, this does make some sick and twisted sense.
Some of these non-canonical gospels have been reconstructed in Robert M. Price's The Pre-Nicene New Testament: Fifty-four Formative Texts, Bart Ehrman's Lost Scriptures, and Robert J. Miller's The Complete Gospels.
[edit] Gospels as history
As with most religious texts, scholars assume some basic level of reliability on topics like "Who were the players?", "What were the major events?" and "What was the attitude of the community the texts intend to represent?"[5]
Richard Carrier wrote on the supposed resurrection:
| Can you imagine a movement today claiming that a soldier in World War Two rose physically from the dead, but when you asked for proof all they offered you were a mere handful of anonymous religious tracts written in the 1980's? Would it be even remotely reasonable to believe such a thing on so feeble a proof? Well—no.[6] |
The first reference to the Gospels in a manner we can cross check didn't appear until c180 CE, nearly 150 years after the supposed events and some 50 to 110 years after the Gospels are thought to have been written down. And these are the Gospels that were formally canonized by the First Council of Nicea in 325 CE out of the literally dozens of other Gospels around.
For these reasons, as a primary historical record, the Christian gospels are dubious at best. For one, the gospels themselves are admittedly propagandist: "And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have through his name." (John 20:30-31) The writers peppered the gospels with Old Testament references — most details of Jesus' life are Old Testament references.[7]
[edit] Conflicts with known history
A major problem with the Gospels and Acts as history is that when they are compared with known historical events or people, they fail spectacularly.
Richard Carrier wrote about some of these issues:
| If you want a more historically plausible account of how the Jewish elite would have actually handled the Jesus problem, look at how we’re told they planned to handle the Paul problem (Acts 23:12-21). More likely, they would have killed him immediately upon his vandalism of the temple square, which was guarded by six hundred armed soldiers (with thousands more to summon just a javelin’s throw away in Fort Antonia, which housed a whole Roman legion, adjacent to the Temple: Josephus, Jewish War 2.12.1, 4.5.1, 5.238-248; Jewish Antiquities 20.8.6, 20.8.11), who were not afraid to beat down any rebellious public who got in their way (most especially trouble-makers in the Temple). Certainly in the temple they could have arrested him easily, with ample armed support (note that Gentiles were permitted in the Temple area that Jesus vandalized, so Roman legions could police it, as well as the Jewish guards authorized to kill any Gentiles who entered the forbidden areas).
Thus, as Acts would have it, Claudius Lysias had no difficulty dispatching hundreds of soldiers and cavalry from within Jerusalem to escort Paul outside the city (Acts 23:22-24), and Paul was able to be arrested even in the middle of a riot. As Josephus relates in Antiquities 20.1, the Romans regularly killed political undesirables surrounded by hundreds of fanatical supporters, without wasting time on an arrest or trial. And even Mark seems to imagine the Jews could assemble a large armed force, and indeed arrest Jesus with one (Mk. 14:43, Mt. 26:47; according to John 18:3, they even came with six hundred Roman legionairies, a full cohort).[8] |
Some other issues that come up are:
- Herod's Slaughter of the Innocents (Matthew 2:16-18) is not recorded in any other history (or Gospel) — not even by Josephus, who really didn't like Herod and meticulously catalogued his other misdeeds.
- Luke 2:1-4 claims Jesus was born in the year of a universal tax census, but the first such census did not occur until 74 CE - and it is not in the other gospels. [9]
- Luke 2:2 KJV specifically states "And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria." Cyrenius is the Greek name for Publius Sulpicius Quirinius, who came to this position in 6 CE.
- The Sanhedrin trial account is totally at odds with the records on how that court actually operated in the 1st century.[10] In fact, a little quirk of the Sanhedrin court was that a unanimous verdict for conviction resulted in acquittal.[11]
- Pontius Pilate is totally out of character based on other accounts. Josephus relates two accounts where Pilate's solution to mobs causing a disturbance was brutally simple--have Roman soldiers go out and kill them until they dispersed. Moreover it is never really explained in the Bible why, if Jesus' only crime was blasphemy, Pilate would need to be involved. If Jesus' crime has been sedition, then there would be no reason for Pilate to involve Herod Antipas--or for the Sanhedrin to be involved for that matter.
- The crucified were left to rot as a warning to others unless there was intervention on the behalf of an important person per The Life of Flavius Josephus (75)
- Given Jesus' short time on the cross and reports of him being out and about afterwards, certainly the Romans might have wondered if they had been tricked. Never mind that theft of a body was a capital crime. Yet there is nothing in the reports about the Romans acting on either possibility. Carrier describe how the Romans would have handled the situation and it is totally at odds with the account in Acts. [12]
- Jesus is depicted as hugely popular in the gospels. Yet he is unrecorded by non-Biblical historians.
[edit] Matthew vs Luke problem
A major issue with using the Gospels is that in terms of time Matthew and Luke do not agree as to when Jesus was born. Matthew specifically puts it 6 to 4 BCE while Luke, with his reference to Quirinius establishes it as being no earlier then 6 CE.
Apologists try to handwave this conflict away with various claims that are not supported by history. Here is the historical reality of the period 6 BC to 6 CE:
- Publius Sulpicius Quirinius was fighting some two provinces to the east a minimum of 6-3 BCE with him being Duumvir of the area 6-1 BCE.[13] and some say the war goes back as far as to 12 BCE.
- Publius Quinctilius Varus oversaw the area covered by Herod the Great's kingdom from c. 8 BCE to 4 BCE as documented by Josephus and Sentius Saturninus preceded him 10 BCE - c. 8 BCE.
- In Antiquities chapter 17 verse 27 Josephus expressly stated that as long as Herod the Great lived, the province of Judea was exempt from Roman taxation. Therefore, Luke's taxation census must have occurred after Herod's death, while Matthew requires it to have happened before.
- While Herod Archelaus removal as Ethnarch of Judea (where Bethlehem of Judea is) made it subject to Roman taxation, Herod Antipas remained Tetrarch of Galilee (where Nazareth is) clear until 41 CE, making its subjects exempt from the Judean census, so the reason given by Luke for the trip makes no sense.
- Because ΙΟΥΔΑΙΑΣ could refer to all Palestine or the southern portion of Palestine lying on this side of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, to distinguish it from Samaria, Galilee, Peraea, and Idumaea Luke 1:5's ΗΡΩΔΟΥ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΤΗΣ ΙΟΥΔΑΙΑΣ could refer to either Herod the Great or Herod Archelaus with Luke 2:2 indicating the later. Herod[14]
- A little-known fact is that in the time period Jesus supposedly lived there was a Bethlehem of Zebulun (around 10 kilometres north-west of Nazareth and 30 kilometres east of Haifa ie in Galilee) and it has been suggested that this is the Bethlehem Jesus really came from.[15]
- Moreover, a census would not and has never meant ordering a return to the town people were born in, but rather taking records of them where they lived. The alternative would be a logistical nightmare in which the roads would be clogged with traveling returning to their home towns throughout all of Judea, making a census-taking far more difficult, if not impossible. This part of the story likely was added so that Joseph (who is said to come from the House of David-i.e. the royal line) would return to Bethlehem, so Jesus could be born there, thus fulfilling an supposed old prophecy regarding the Jewish Messiah. However, some translations of Micah 5:2 make it clear that the supposed "Bethlehem" prophecy is in reference to a group of people in Judea not a town so there is no prophecy regarding Jewish Messiah being born in the town Bethlehem but rather coming from the Bethlehem clan who could have been anywhere in the land that had once been called Judea.
- Finally Matthew implies that nearly two years had passed since Jesus' family had fled to Egypt when Herod starting killing the children in and around Bethlehem while Luke expressly states they went to temple every year.
[edit] Picking other timelines from the Gospels
As pointed out by Robert M. Price Irenaeus had Jesus crucified under Claudius Caesar (41-54 CE)[16][17]
The Irenaeus example Price provides is actually far worse than Price presents it. The actual passage in Demonstration (74) is
| "For Herod the king of the Jews and Pontius Pilate, the governor of Claudius Caesar, came together and condemned Him to be crucified." |
and this one sentence is so full of historical inaccuracies that it is unbelievable that few have pointed them out.
The key issue is the title "King of the Jews". When Herod the Great died, his kingdom was broken up between this three sons: Herod Archelaus (Ethnarch of Judaea 4 BCE – 6 CE), Herod Antipas (Tetrarch of Galilee 4 BCE - 41 CE), and "Herod" Philip II (Tetrarch of Batanea 4 BCE – 34 CE). Archelaus was removed 6 CE with Judea governed by Roman prefects until Herod Agrippa I came to power in 41 CE. Furthermore, while some later books have called Herod Agrippa II "king of the Jews", he in truth never ruled over the Judea province.[18]
So the only Herods close to the supposed life of Jesus (c. 6 BCE to c. 36 CE) that were "King of the Jews" (i.e. ruled the Judea province) were Herod the Great and Herod Agrippa I. Moreover, we have a reasonable history of Herod Agrippa I from 34 CE (death of John the Baptist) to his death in 44 CE:
- Due to expressing the desire for Tiberius to hurry up and die so his friend Caligula could become emperor, Herod Agrippa I was thrown in prison and not released until 37 CE when Caligula came to power. By that time Pontius Pilate had been replaced by Marcellus.
- While Herod Agrippa I did come to Judea as governor in the final year of Caligula's rule (41 CE), he answered to Prefect Marcellus, who in turn answered to Tetrarch Herod Antipas.
- Due to Herod Agrippa I's advice, Claudius became Caesar in 41 and as a reward a year later Marcellus and Herod Antipas were replaced by Herod Agrippa I, resulting in him being "like Herod the Great before him, king of the Jews." [19]
More over in Against Heresies 2:22:4, Irenaeus argued that Jesus had to be a minimum of at least 46 if not 50 years old when he was crucified. Irenaeus himself quotes Luke, establishing that Jesus was about 30 when he was baptized and when this was: in the "fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar" (c. 29 CE).
Even if you push Jesus's supposed birth date in Matthew to c. 6 BCE (Herod the Great killing children two years old and younger), putting Jesus at 34 in c. 29 CE (there is no year zero), you don't get to the required minimum 46 years of age until 41 CE, which requires the Caesar to be Claudius (41-54 CE) and the Herod "king of the Jews" to be Agrippa I (42-44 CE). That leaves the problem of Pontius Pilate, who not only had been recalled to Rome in 36 CE, but with a Herod "king of the Jews" in charge would not have been needed.
The really curious thing in all this is Irenaeus in Against Heresies 1:27:2 stated:
| But Jesus being derived from that father who is above the God that made the world, and coming into Judæa in the times of Pontius Pilate the governor, who was the procurator of Tiberius Cæsar |
Showing that either Irenaeus believed Pontius Pilate was procurator under Tiberius and became governor under Claudius or that he wasn't sure when Pontius Pilate's rule was.
[edit] See also
- Salvation - "The Gospel" is often used as a synonym for a salvation message in particular, rather than the four Gospels in general.
- Bible
- Guide to the Bible
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ It probably goes without saying that some Christians believe these 4 accounts were written by the disciples of Jesus, immediately after his death
- ↑ Raymond E. Brown. An Introduction to the New Testament.
- ↑ Raymond E. Brown. An Introduction to the New Testament.
- ↑ Raymond E. Brown. An Introduction to the New Testament.
- ↑ e.g. JD Crossan, Historical Jesus, Life of a Jewish Peasant; A Schweitzer, Quest for the Historical Jesus; W. Blanton, Shadow of the Galilean.
- ↑ Richard Carrier. "Why I Don't Buy the Resurrection Story." (6th ed., 2006)
- ↑ R.G. Price, 2007-01-03. "Jesus Myth - The Case Against Historical Christ".
- ↑ Richard Carrier. (June 14, 2013)"Brown Out: A Christian Reviews Proving History"
- ↑ Carrier, Richard (2011) The Date of the Nativity in Luke (6th ed., 2011) Secular Web
- ↑ Reverend Kenny Nailimup THE TRIAL THAT NEVER TOOK PLACE
- ↑ Maimonides, Laws of Sanhedrin, 9:1
- ↑ Did Jesus Even Exist? (Carrier's Missouri State University lecture) YouTube
- ↑ Carrier, Richard (2011) "The Date of the Nativity in Luke (6th ed., 2011)"
- ↑ David Goodblatt's "Dating Documents in Herodian Judaea" in Herod and Augustus: Papers Presented at the IJS Conference, 21st-23rd June 2005
- ↑ see Aviram Oshri's "Where was Jesus Born?" in Volume 58 Number 6, November/December 2005 of Archaeology for more details on the Bethlehem of Zebulun idea.
- ↑ Irenaeus (c180 CE)Demonstration (74)
- ↑ See Robert M Price. "Jesus at the Vanishing Point," in James K. Beilby & Paul Rhodes Eddy (eds.) The Historical Jesus: Five Views. InterVarsity, 2009, p. 80-81.
- ↑ Gelb, Norman (2010) Kings of the Jews: The Origins of the Jewish Nation pg 205
- ↑ Crossan, John Dominic (1996) Who Killed Jesus?: Exposing the Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Gospel Story pg 94