The Four Gospels: A Guide to Their Historical Background, Characteristic Differences, and Timeless Significance

By William S. Stobb

The Four Gospels have been read and studied for nearly 2,000 years. As early as the second century Irenaeus, Church father and martyr, declared that four accounts of the life of Christ were needed - no more and no less! Yet many Christians, in spite of the numerous and excellent commentaries available today, cannot answer the question, “Why four Gospels?” This in-depth volume, which took 20 years to research and 10 years to write, clearly reveals the necessity of a four-fold portrait of Christ. Selected excerpts from some of the most celebrated writers of the past, such as A. Edersheim, Chas. Erdman, F. W. Farrar, Edw. Gibbon, F. L. Godet, D. S. Gregory, F. W. Krummacher, H. H. Milman, G. Campbell Morgan, Arthur Pink, Sir Wm. Ramsay, Chas. Rollin, R. C. Trench, B. F. Westcott, and scores of others, are incorporated throughout the book in order to explain and substantiate the historical background and characteristic differences of the Four Gospels. This work is an excellent reference for teachers, students, and historians, but is designed for Christians in all walks of life. A homeschooling mother stated that the “work is quite readable (even by a pressured mom) and very worthwhile. I especially like the organization of the book, which helped me keep my bearings. The history is fascinating and helpful.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ambassador International
• Release date: Nov 22, 2016
• ISBN: 9781620204627

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THE FOUR GOSPELS

© 2007 William S. Stob and Rebecca J. Stob, Trustees of the Stob Living Trust dated April 30, 1993.

The publisher has acknowledged copyright holders for various quotations within this book. These quotations comply with the copyright principle of fair comment or fair usage.

All Scripture references are from the King James Version of the Bible with the exception of those that might appear within a quoted source or otherwise noted.

ISBN: 978-1-93230-775-7

eISBN: 978-1-62020-462-7

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This book is dedicated to

Pastor Donald E. Weiss,

friend and role model, whose life is characterized by devotion to Christ, obedience to Scripture, and faithfulness in service.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page

Copyright Information

Dedication

Introduction: The Purpose from the Beginning

Chapter One: The Question: Why Four Gospels?

Perspective: The General State of the World by Thomas Gisborne

Part I: The Fullness of Time

Chapter Two: The Work of God: World Preparation

Perspective: Remarks on the Gospel History by William Nast

Part II: The Importance of the Past

Chapter Three: The Gospel of Matthew: Righteousness Through Obedience

Chapter Four: The Hebrews: Chosen and Zealous

Chapter Five: The Son of David: Rightful King

Perspective: The Rejected Messiah by Charles Erdman

Part III: The Meaning of the Present

Chapter Six: The Gospel of Mark: Victory Through Suffering

Chapter Seven: The Romans: Practical and Powerful

Chapter Eight: The Servant of God: Mighty Prophet

Perspective: The Opposition to the Servant by Arthur W. Pink

Part IV: The Needs of the Future

Chapter Nine: The Gospel of Luke: Evidence Through Witnesses

Chapter Ten: The Greeks: Cultured and Idealistic

Chapter Eleven: The Son of Man: Sympathetic Priest

Perspective: God’s Perfect Plan for the Perfect Man by G. Campbell Morgan

Part V: The Mysteries of the Eternal

Chapter Twelve: The Gospel of John: Revelation Through Signs

Chapter Thirteen: The World: Wealthy and Wretched

Chapter Fourteen: The Son of God: Life-Giving Redeemer

Perspective: A Proof of Christ’s Divinity by William Nast

Part VI: The Message for All Time

Chapter Fifteen: The Four Gospels: The Common Testimony

Perspective: The Crucifixion of Christ by Frederic W. Farrar

Conclusion: The Glory in the End

Chapter Sixteen: The Representative Crowd and the Redeemed Church

Postscript: The Scene at the Cross by Frederic W. Farrar

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C: Test Your Knowledge of the Gospels

Bibliography

Contact Information

INTRODUCTION

THE PURPOSE FROM THE BEGINNING

For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down,

that it will sprout again, and that the

tender branch thereof will not cease.

JOB 14:7

It entered into the purpose of God from the beginning, to give the divine religion of the Christian revelation to all mankind. The great commission sent the Apostles to preach the Gospel to every creature. In its fulfillment it required just so many and just such Gospels to meet the wants of the world of the apostolic age in commending Jesus to all men as the Savior from sin.¹

-D. S. Gregory, Why Four Gospels?

The four canonical Gospels are the greatest books in the world. Perhaps we realize this most easily if we imagine ourselves deprived of them. Suppose that these four had shared the fate of the many known to St. Luke, and that every copy of them had perished. Eagerly we should scrutinize the remaining New Testament books, in the vain hope of deducing from them the work, the words, the character of Jesus Christ. We should learn, indeed, that He was betrayed, instituted the eucharist on the night of betrayal, was crucified, rose from the dead, was seen of many witnesses. Beyond these bare statements we should know practically nothing. Of the Ascension alone we should possess an account, supplied by a few sentences in the Acts. That our Lord had brought a new super-natural power into the world would be evident from the amazing growth of the Church. But our guesses concerning the nature of that power, and of the way in which it became operative, must have gone hopelessly astray. Lacking the Gospels, who could have imagined such deeds and such teaching as are described in their pages? Whether or no we count ourselves Christians, we cannot escape the influence of the Gospel ideal upon thought and conduct. And, as Christians, while we might still have without the Gospels a Lord to reverence, we should not have a Friend to love. The four little books can be given us in perhaps a hundred and fifty pages of print. They can be read from start to finish in a few hours. Yet they have shaped history to a degree almost impossible to exaggerate. As the Bible is incomparably the greatest collection of writings, so are the Gospels the supreme treasure of the Bible.²

-Anthony C. Deane, How to Understand the Gospels

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¹ D. S. Gregory, Why Four Gospels? Or, the Gospel for All the World (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, Publishers, 1890), 343.

² Anthony C. Deane, How to Understand the Gospels (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1929), 1-2.

Figure 0-1. Holman Hunt: The Light of the World

The Synoptic Gospels portray Jesus Christ in His three-fold office of Prophet (Mark), Priest (Luke), and King (Matthew). The Gospel of John, by contrast, presents the Lord as the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world (1:9). These four unique aspects of Christ’s ministry are represented in this masterpiece by Holman Hunt (1827-1910).

Jesus is portrayed at the door of the human heart, dressed as Prophet (the white robe), Priest (the breastplate), and King (the crown of gold with the thorns). He had approached in the night-time, and brings a two-fold light: the light from Christ’s face (which reveals the hope of salvation), and the lantern (representing the light of conscience). The light falls on the door with the rusty hinges, the weeds, and an apple—all of which symbolize the sin of man.

CHAPTER ONE

The Question: Why Four Gospels?

As the children of Israel were nearing the end of their forty-year ordeal in the wilderness, Moses brought them to Moab, where the twelve tribes were to receive instructions for the partitioning of the Promised Land of Canaan. Before arriving on the Plains of Moab, however, the Israelites stopped at Kadesh-Barnea, where in addition to the report of the spies and the rebellion of Korah, there was this startling announcement to the tribe of Levi:

And the Lord spake unto Aaron, Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land, neither shalt thou have any part among them: I am thy part and thine inheritance among the children of Israel. NUM. 18:20

Whereas some members of the priestly tribe of Levi might have felt that they were being short-changed, so to speak, God had, in fact, by those words made them richer than all their brethren, richer than all the kings and rajas who have ever lived in the world. And there is a spiritual principle here, a principle still valid for every priest of the Most High God.¹ Dr. A. W. Tozer explained this principle as follows:

The man who has God for his treasure has all things in One. Many ordinary treasures may be denied him, or if he is allowed to have them, the enjoyment of them will be so tempered that they will never be necessary to his happiness. Or if he sees them go, one by one, he will scarcely feel a sense of loss, for having the Source of all things he has in One all satisfaction, all pleasure, all delight. Whatever he may lose he has actually lost nothing, for he now has it all in One, and he has it purely, legitimately, and forever.²

Unfortunately, many of God’s children do not appreciate the treasure they have inherited through Christ. Tragically, many Christians today have set their affections on the temporal things of this world, exchanging their great privilege of knowing God better for that which is mundane.³ But God Himself rebukes that kind of attitude:

Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me. . . . JER. 9:23-24A

The Importance of the Life of Christ

A study of the life of Jesus Christ, "who is the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15a), should be the desire of every born-again believer, since knowing God is the essence of being a Christian."⁴ Recording the high-priestly prayer of our Lord, the Apostle John wrote: "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3). The Apostle Paul said, "I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord" (Phil. 3:8a).

Not only sincere believers, but secular writers as well have recognized and acknowledged the monumental importance of the life of Christ. French historian, philosopher, and prolific writer, Ernest Renan (1823-1892), stated:

The principal event in the history of the world is the revolution by which the noblest portions of humanity have forsaken the ancient religions, which are classed together under the vague name of Paganism, for a religion founded on the Divine Unity, the Trinity, and the Incarnation of the Son of God. Nearly a thousand years were required to achieve this conversion. The new religion itself took at least three hundred years in its formation. But the origin of the revolution in question is a historical event which happened in the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius. At that time there lived a man of supreme personality, who, by his bold originality, and by the love which he was able to inspire,became the object, and the settled direction, of the future faith of mankind.⁵

Comparing the life of Socrates to that of Jesus Christ, the famous French philosopher and social theorist, Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), admitted:

What an infinite disproportion there is between them! Socrates, dying without pain or ignominy, easily supported his character to the last; and, if this easy death had not crowned his life, it might have been doubted whether Socrates, with all his wisdom, was anything more than a mere sophist. He invented, it is said, the theory of ethics. Others, however, had before put them into practice: he had only to say, therefore, what they had done, and to reduce their examples to precepts. Aristides had been just before Socrates defined justice. Leonides had given up his life for his country before Socrates declared patriotism to be a duty. The Spartans were a sober people before Socrates recommended sobriety. Before he had even defined virtue, Greece abounded in virtuous men. But where could Jesus learn, among his contemporaries, that pure and sublime morality of which he only has given us both precept and example? The greatest wisdom was made known among the most bigoted fanaticism; and the simplicity of the most heroic virtues did honour to the vilest people on earth. The death of Socrates, peacefully philosophizing among friends, appears the most agreeable that one could wish: that of Jesus, expiring in agonies, abused, insulted, and accused by a whole nation, is the most horrible that one could fear. Socrates, indeed, in receiving the cup of poison, blessed the weeping executioner who administered it; but Jesus, amidst excruciating tortures, prayed for his merciless tormentors. Yes, if the life and death of Socrates were those of a sage, the life and death of Jesus are those of a God.⁶

Commenting on the life of Christ, the great military genius, Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), said:

Everything in him astonishes me. His spirit overawes me, and his will confounds me. Between him and whoever else in the world there is no possible term of comparison. He is truly a being by himself. His ideas and his sentiments, the truth which he announces, his manner of convincing, are not explained either by human organization or by the nature of things.

His birth, and the history of his life; the profundity of his doctrine, which grapples the mightiest difficulties, and which is of those difficulties the most admirable solution; his gospel, his apparition, his empire, his march across the ages and the realms—everything is for me a prodigy, a mystery insoluble, which plunges me into reveries which I cannot escape; a mystery which is there before my eyes; a mystery which I can neither deny nor explain. . . .

His religion is a revelation from an intelligence which certainly is not that of man. There is there a profound originality which has created a series of words and of maxims before unknown. Jesus borrowed nothing from our science. One can absolutely find nowhere, but in him alone, the imitation of the example of his life. He is not a philosopher, since he advances by miracles; and, from the commencement, his disciples worshipped him. He persuaded them far more by an appeal to the heart than by any display of method and of logic. Neither did he impose upon them any preliminary studies, or any knowledge of letters. All his religion consists in believing.

In fact, the sciences and philosophy avail nothing for salvation; and Jesus came into the world to reveal the mysteries of heaven and the laws of the spirit. Also he has nothing to do but with the soul; and to that alone he brings his gospel. The soul is sufficient for him, as he is sufficient for the soul. Before him, the soul was nothing. Matter and time were masters of the world. At his voice, everything returns to order. Science and philosophy become secondary. The soul has reconquered its sovereignty. All scholastic scaffolding falls as an edifice ruined, before one single word—faith.⁷

Although never a religious man, the celebrated British philosopher and author, John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), wrote:

Above all, the most valuable part of the effect on the character which Christianity has produced by holding up in a Divine Person a standard of excellence and a model for imitation, is available even to the absolute unbeliever, and can never more be lost to humanity. For it is Christ, rather than God, whom Christianity has held up to believers as the pattern of perfection for humanity. It is the God incarnate, more than the God of the Jews or nature, who being idealized has taken so great and salutary a hold on the modern mind. And whatever else may be taken away from us by rational criticism, Christ is still left; a unique figure, not more unlike all his precursors than all his followers, even those who had direct benefit of his personal teaching.⁸

Irish historian, William Edward Hartpole Lecky (1838-1903), who won international recognition with his History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne (1869), noted:

If Christianity was remarkable for its appeals to the selfish or interested side of our nature, it was far more remarkable for the empire it attained over disinterested enthusiasm. The Platonist exhorted men to imitate God; the Stoic, to follow reason; the Christian, to the love of Christ. The later Stoics had often united their notions of excellence in an ideal sage, and Epictetus had even urged his disciples to set before them some man of surpassing excellence, and to imagine him continually near them; but the utmost the Stoic ideal could become was a model for imitation, and the admiration it inspired could never deepen into affection.

It was reserved for Christianity to present to the world an ideal character, which through all the changes of eighteen centuries has inspired the hearts of men with an impassioned love, has shown itself capable of acting on all ages, nations, temperaments, and conditions, has been not only the highest pattern of virtue, but the strongest incentive to its practice, and has exercised so deep an influence that it may be truly said that the simple record of three short years of active life has done more to regenerate and to soften mankind than all the disquisitions of philosophers and all the exhortations of moralists.⁹

Another nineteenth-century scholar, F. V. N. Painter, who wrote A History of Education (1886), admitted:

The life of Christ, apart from its religious significance in the world’s redemption, is well worth a careful study. It is now . . . nineteen centuries since his birth. During this vast period, the world has moved forward in its gigantic process of development. The sum of human knowledge has been immeasurably increased, new arts and sciences have arisen, yet the life of Christ stands forth in unapproachable beauty. The greatest minds of modern times, with the docility of the Galilean fishermen, have paid him the tribute of reverent admiration.¹⁰

One of the great minds of modern times was the highly revered poet and playwright, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832). He was to Germany what Shakespeare was to England—the country’s greatest literary genius. The crowning achievement of Goethe’s long life was the dramatic masterpiece, Faust (first part, 1808; second, 1832). In this drama Goethe’s Faust makes a compact with the devil because he genuinely desires to extend the boundaries of his knowledge; yet eleven day before his own death, Goethe confessed:

No matter how much the human mind may progress in intellectual culture, in the science of nature, in breadth and depth: it will never be able to rise above the elevation and moral culture of Christianity as it shines in the Gospels.¹¹

The Accounts of the Life of Christ

The life and teachings of Jesus Christ are recorded in the Gospels, and, as such, deserve our ever-renewed and attentive study.

The four Gospels form in some respects the most important portion of the Bible. Their value partly arises out of their relation to other portions of it. All its earlier revelations flow into them. All its later revelations flow out of them. They are, as it were, the heart through which, like life’s blood, all its revelations circulate. But it is in their relation to Christ that their value pre-eminently consists. In other parts of Scripture we hear Christ by the hearing of the ear, but here our eye seeth Him. Elsewhere we see Him through a glass darkly, but here face to face. On this account they claim the most affectionate as well as reverent perusal of the Church.¹²

Nevertheless, in spite of their supreme importance and extensive familiarity, many Christians still cannot answer the question: Why Four Gospels?

It seems strange that such a question needs to be asked at this late date. The New Testament has now been in the hands of the Lord’s people for almost two thousand years, and yet, comparatively few seem to grasp the character and scope of its first four books. No part of the Scriptures has been studied more widely than have the four Gospels: innumerable sermons have been preached from them, scores of commentaries have been written upon them, and every two or three years sections from one of the Gospels is assigned as the course for study in our Sunday Schools. Yet the fact remains, that the peculiar design and character of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, is rarely perceived even by those most familiar with their contents.

Why four Gospels? It does not seem to have occurred to the minds of many to ask such a question. That we have four Gospels which treat of the earthly ministry of Christ is universally accepted, but as to why we have them, as to what they are severally designed to teach, as to their peculiar characteristics, as to their distinctive beauties—these are little discerned and even less appreciated.¹³

Why Four Gospels? In order to answer the question, we need to discern the significance of the number four, and we turn our attention now to the first reference of this numeral in Scripture. In the second chapter of Genesis we read:

And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. GEN. 2:8-10

Note carefully the words from thence. In Eden itself the river was one, but from thence it was parted and became into four heads. There must be some deeply hidden meaning to this, for why tell us how many heads this river had? The mere historical fact is without interest or value for us, and that the Holy Spirit has condescended to record this detail prepares us to look beneath the surface and seek for some mystical meaning. And surely that is not far to seek. Eden suggests to us the Paradise above: the river which watered it tells of Christ who is the Light and Joy of Heaven. Interpreting this mystic figure, then, we learn that in Heaven Christ was seen in one character only—The Lord of Glory—but just as when the river left Eden it was parted and became four heads and as such watered the earth, so too, the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus has been, by the Holy Spirit, parted into four heads in the Four Gospels.¹⁴

Another Old Testament passage, which anticipated a four-fold division of Christ’s ministry, is found in the book of Exodus. In the twenty-sixth chapter we read:

And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which was shewed thee in the mount. And thou shalt make a veil of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen of cunning work: with cherubims shall it be made: And thou shalt hang it upon four pillars of shittim wood overlaid with gold: their hooks shall be of gold, upon the four sockets of silver. EXOD. 26:30-32

From Hebrews 10:19-20 we learn that the veil foreshadowed the Incarnation, God manifest in flesh—through the veil, that is to say, His flesh. It is surely significant that this veil was hung upon four pillars of shittim wood overlaid with gold: the wood, again, speaking of His humanity, and the gold of His deity. Just as these four pillars served to display the beautiful veil, so in the four Gospels we have made manifest the perfections of the only-begotten of the Father tabernacling among men.¹⁵

The opening verses of the fourth Gospel, in fact, introduce Jesus Christ as the only-begotten of the Father tabernacling among men. John wrote:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. . . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. JOHN 1:1-2, 14

It will be noticed in this passage that the first three uses of the Word are in relationship to God and His eternal existence, but the fourth reference to the Word is linked to Jesus’ incarnation and earthly existence—"The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us."

Yet, even though the fourth Gospel is markedly different from the three synoptic Gospels—much as the fourth soil is very different from the other three in the Parable of the Four Soils—all the Gospels, nevertheless, present the only-begotten of the Father tabernacling among men on earth. Why Four Gospels? Because they deal with the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ. Four is the number of the earth.

There are four points to earth’s compass—north, east, south, and west. There are four seasons to earth’s year—spring, summer, autumn, and winter. There are four elements connected with our world—earth, air, fire, and water. There have been four, and only four, great world empires—the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Grecian, and the Roman. Scripture divides earth’s inhabitants into four classes—kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation (Rev. 5:9 etc.). In the Parable of the Sower, our Lord divided the field into four kinds of soil, and later He said, the field is the world. The fourth commandment has to do with rest from all earth’s labors. The fourth clause in what is known as the Lord’s prayer is, Thy will be done on earth. And so we might go on. Four is thus the earth number. How fitting, then, that the Holy Spirit should have given us four Gospels in which to set forth the earthly ministry of the Heavenly One.¹⁶

As mentioned above, Scripture divides earth’s inhabitants into four classes, and these were represented in the first century by the Jew, the Roman, the Greek, and the Christian. These groups personified four different outlooks on life—four kinds of ambitions and expectations—that still exist today. Why Four Gospels? Because the earth was, and still is, inhabited by four classes of people.

The theory presented explains the fitness of the Gospels for the world in all ages. Those classes were representative classes for all time. There are the same needs among men today—one man needing, for conviction of the truth of Christianity, to hear an authoritative word of God in type or prophecy, in the Scriptures, and to be assured of its fulfillment as proclaiming the divine mission of Jesus; a second needing to see him as the divine power in his living activity, confirming his own claims; a third requiring a manifestation of God addressed to reason, through the perfect manhood of Jesus; a fourth demanding only the spiritual presence and teachings of Jesus to recognize in him the light and life. The Gospels appeal respectively to the instincts which lead men to bow to divine authority, power, perfection, and spirituality, and may thus be shown to exhaust the sides of man’s nature from which he may best be reached and led to submission to the Savior, and to completeness in him. The four Gospels given to men in the apostolic times are therefore the complete Gospel of God for the world in all ages.¹⁷

Unfortunately, much of the beauty, structure, and meaning of the Gospels is lost to the modern reader because of a lack of understanding of the historical setting in which the four narratives originated. Furthermore, many of us have read about the events in the life of our Savior from our childhood up, until the familiarity with the language in which they are written often causes us to overlook its sublime and inspired import.¹⁸ This book is an attempt to remedy this condition in order for the reader to see more clearly the unalterable design and unfading significance of the four Gospels, as well as to know and treasure more fully the Savior whose life, death, and resurrection are therein recorded.

In addition to the unique way Christ is portrayed in each Gospel, there are certain themes and distinctive features that are entirely lost to the reader, who has little or no knowledge of the passions and perspectives of the ancient peoples to whom the Gospels were originally addressed. To this end numerous authorities of various disciplines and persuasions, both past and present, will be quoted throughout the book, in order to provide a qualified analysis and description of the nature of the times, the character of the people, and the influence of the culture at the beginning of the Christian era. Some of the most notable literary works of permanent value—which are, unfortunately, out of print and not readily accessible—will be cited in an attempt to fix the attention and excite the interest of those who cannot behold with indifference the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, as well as the historical background against which the events of His life unfolded.

No revolutionary movement can be understood apart from its historical background. The primary background of Jesus, early Christianity, and the New Testament is first-century Judaism. Judaism is, of course, one of the world’s major religions, as it was in the first Christian century. A remarkable continuity or similarity exists between the Judaism of today and that of the first century, despite the changes that the centuries have wrought. This continuity is in itself a clue to the character of that ancient faith. Both Judaism and Christianity are historical religions. This means more than that they have histories or even a common history. They share a faith in a God who deals with men, individually and collectively, in such a way that his will can be discerned in history. Crucial to both religions is the idea that God reveals Himself in history.¹⁹

This concept will be developed more fully as we look at the Gospel of Matthew and the Importance of the Past. And in like manner, as we cannot understand the Gospel of Matthew apart from its relationship with Judaism, so too, we cannot fully appreciate the other Gospels apart from a knowledge of the Greek, Roman, and Oriental forces that shaped the Hellenistic world. For example, when we turn to Greece to view the general trend and history of her civilization we face a totally different kind of people.²⁰

The Israelites are Orientals but the Greeks are Occidentals. That explains much in the outlook of each. But especially important is the fact that the particular achievement of Israel lay in the field of special grace. This fact has been stated by Bavinck in these words: Israel was the people of the Sabbath, the pagans are the people of the week. In art, science, political science, in all that belongs to the realm of culture, Israel stood far behind many heathen peoples. The achievement of Greece lay in the field of common grace. Of course Israel too enjoyed the fruits of common grace. Life in an organized society is not possible without it. But the point here is that what was distinctive of each was the result of common grace in the one, and of special grace in the other.²¹

Why Four Gospels? Because this number—no more and no less—is needed to meet the needs of people in all ages. Each Gospel is specifically written to appeal to a unique segment of the world’s population. Understanding how this is accomplished, much narrative that initially appears to be confusing and irrelevant becomes lucid and useful. With certain background information, which this book is intended to convey, the reader will, hopefully, be encouraged to get to know Christ better. In fact, equipped with sufficient knowledge of (1) the purpose of the author, (2) the intended audience, (3) the way Christ is presented, and (4) the major themes of a particular Gospel, one can not only appreciate, but also in large measure anticipate, what events and circumstances are to be included or omitted in any Gospel account. Matthew addressed his Gospels to the Jews, and only he, for example, records the rending of the veil of the Temple, the earthquake and the signs that followed it, which, at the time, could hardly have had any special significance except for the Jews (Matt. 27:51-53).²² Luke by contrast wrote for a Gentile audience, so only in his Gospel are we told that "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled" (Luke 21:24).

Regarding omissions, we note that Matthew does not record the ascension of Christ, Mark gives no account of His birth or genealogy, Luke omits the ministry of the angels to Christ after His temptation, and John makes no mention of the Transfiguration. Why? Because these omissions are to be expected in view of how the four Gospels portray Christ in His various roles and relationships to a holy God and a sinful people. Matthew, presenting Christ as King with the offer of an earthly kingdom, concludes his narrative with Christ still on earth. Mark omits Christ’s genealogy and the story of His birth, because these are not essential references for One who is introduced as a Servant. Luke makes no mention of ministering angels, because he portrays Christ in His role as Priest, emphasizing His intercession on behalf of man toward God—earth toward heaven, not heaven toward earth. John, stressing the deity of Christ, omits the Transfiguration, because this event highlighted His perfect humanity.

The synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—do, however, share much material in common and recount many of the same events. Nevertheless, there are both subtle and significant differences in how these particulars are described. For example, the first Gospel relates Christ’s announcement to His disciples of His coming transfiguration as follows: "Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom" (Matt. 16:28). By contrast Mark’s version of Christ’s announcement reads: "Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power" (Mark 9:1). The reason for the different choice of words in these parallel accounts lies in the fact that Matthew presents Christ as King and heir to a kingdom (cf. Matt. 1:1; 2:2), whereas Mark portrays Christ as the Servant of God (cf. Mark 10:45). Consequently, Matthew anticipates Christ coming in His kingdom, but Mark sees Him in relationship to the kingdom of God.

Briefly comparing a few other statements from the Synoptic Gospels, we find that Matthew poses the question of the townspeople as: "Is not this the carpenter’s son? (Matt. 13:55), whereas Mark’s account reads, Is not this the carpenter? (Mark 6:3). Matthew, recording the Sermon on the Mount, says, Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect (Matt. 5:48). Luke’s account, by contrast, reads, Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful (Luke 6:36). Comparing versions of the Lord’s Prayer, we have Matthew saying, And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors (Matt. 6:12), whereas Luke records, and forgive us our sins" (Luke 11:4). In relating the Parable of the Great Supper Matthew begins by saying, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding (Matt. 22:2-3). Luke’s version, on the other hand, begins, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: and sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready (Luke 14:16-17).

The rationale for these variations—and countless others that could be cited—will not now be explained, but left to the investigation and contemplation of the reader. Nevertheless, it needs to be stressed that the very language of these inspired Gospels, including every jot and tittle (cf. Matt. 5:18), is the consequence of a specific plan and thereby suited for special people.

The Four Gospels have characteristic differences (see Appendices A and B) that will make sense to the reader somewhat in proportion to his knowledge of the Hellenistic age in which the New Testament originated. Details that may have been obvious to the casual reader of the first century are all but obliterated to the contemporary student of the Bible after nearly twenty centuries. Nevertheless, this book is intended to be neither an exhaustive commentary on the Gospels, nor a compendium of miscellaneous facts. Rather, the work is designed to be an instructional Guide—an illustrated, authoritative reference work, equally suited as a tool for personal study or as assigned reading in a formal classroom situation. Additionally, a two-part test on the Gospels is found in Appendix C and may be photocopied.

Although this study guide does contain original material, much of the main text incorporates selected excerpts from some of the great literary works of the past, which relate in one way or another to the subject at hand. In gathering up and sifting through this material, which has been harvested from the labors of others, we are reminded of the Apostle Paul’s words to young Timothy: And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also (2 Tim. 2:2). Nevertheless, the works of certain writers, whose theology may be unacceptable to some, are cited because of their historical value and insight. The reference to any particular author should not be construed as an endorsement of either his doctrinal position or ecclesiastical associations. Be that as it may, an exposure to a wide variety of literary sources should enable the student of God’s Word to better understand and more fully appreciate the historical background, characteristic differences, and timeless significance of the Four Gospels.

It is exciting to discover new truths from the life of Christ and gain further insight into how God reached out to a lost world in commending to all men the Savior, which is Christ the Lord (Luke 2:11).

For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. LUKE 2:30-32

It is with the desire that the followers of Christ will value more highly the treasure they have in Him and His Word, that this work is offered for the curiosity and candor of its readers.

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¹ A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers, n.d.), 19.

² Ibid., 20.

³ John MacArthur, Jr., God: Coming Face to Face with His Majesty (Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1993), 11.

⁴ Ibid., 10.

⁵ William G. Hutchison, translator, Renan’s Life of Jesus (London: Walter Scott Publishing Co., Ltd., n.d.), 1.

⁶ Philip Schaff, The Person of Christ: The Perfection of His Humanity Viewed as a Proof of His Divinity. With a Collection of Impartial Testimonies to the Character of Jesus, 12th ed. (New York: American Tract Society, 1882), 216-18.

⁷ Ibid., 238-39.

⁸ Ibid., 280.

⁹ Ibid., 294-95.

¹⁰ F. V. N. Painter, A History of Education (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1886), 82.

¹¹ Schaff, op. cit., 256.

¹² Edward A. Thomson, The Four Evangelists; with the Distinctive Characteristics of Their Gospels (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 38 George Street, 1868), 1.

¹³ Arthur W. Pink, Why Four Gospels? (Swengel, Penn.: Bible Truth Depot, 1921), 9.

¹⁴ Ibid., 17-18.

¹⁵ Ibid., 18.

¹⁶ Ibid., 22-23.

¹⁷ D. S. Gregory, Why Four Gospels? Or, the Gospel for All the World (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, Publishers, 1890), 82-83.

¹⁸ John Fleetwood, The Life of Our Blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ: and the Lives and Sufferings of His Holy Evangelists and Apostles (Philadelphia: J. W. Bradley, 48 North Fourth St., 1858), 7.

¹⁹ Robert A. Spivey and D. Moody Smith, Jr., Anatomy of the New Testament: A Guide to its Structure and Meaning, 2nd ed. (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1974), 7.

²⁰ Ralph Stob, Christianity and Classical Civilization (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1950), 43.

²¹ Ibid., 43-44.

²² Charles John Ellicott, The Gospel According to St. Matthew, with commentary by E. H. Plumptre (London: Cassell & Company, Limited, n.d.), x.

PERSPECTIVE

The General State of the World by Thomas Gisborne

The general state of the world, at the time when Christianity was promulgated, was confessedly such as to render a farther revelation of the will of God highly desirable to mankind. The Heathen nations, Greeks, Romans, Barbarians, were immersed in the grossest idolatry. It was not merely that they worshipped stocks and stones. Their supposed deities were usually represented of characters so detestably flagitious, that we should rather have expected them to have been singled out as objects of abhorrence than of adoration. We know with how much greater proneness and facility men imitate a pattern of vice than of virtue. . . . We might therefore form, by speculative reasoning, a just opinion of the state of morals likely to be prevalent among nations who worshipped Jupiter and Bacchus, and Mercury, and their associates in the Heathen Pantheon. Turn to history, and you find the display of depravity, which your imagination had pictured, delineated in still more glaring colours. The scattered examples of eminent virtue recorded in the annuls of Greece and Rome, examples the brighter on account of their scarcity and of the gloomy contrast with which they are surrounded, militate not against the truth of this general representation. . . . Such being the general conditions of mankind, in consequence of their having rendered thus inefficacious, by their own frailty and perverseness, the invitations and motives to righteousness which their merciful Creator had for so many ages set before them, partly by the light of natural conscience, and partly by special revelation: it perhaps was not wholly unreasonable humbly to hope, that He who had already done so much of his own free-will for his undeserving and sinful creatures, might yet in his infinite mercy do somewhat more.¹

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¹ Thomas Gisborne, A Familiar Survey of the Christian Religion, and of History As Connected with the Introduction of Christianity, and with Its Progress to the Present Time, 6th ed. (London: Printed for T. Cadell and W. Davies, in the Strand, 1816), 237-40.

PART I

THE FULLNESS OF TIME

The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness,

Prepare ye the way of the Lord,

make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Every valley shall be exalted,

and every mountain and hill shall be made low:

and the crooked shall be made straight,

and the rough places plain:

And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,

and all flesh shall see it together:

for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

ISAIAH 40:3-5

From the whole that history presents us, we deduce conclusions that have an important bearing on human happiness and virtue. This we consider as the most signal benefit derivable from the record of past ages. It gives us, in connexion with revelation, which furnishes a most interesting portion of the world’s history, a correct estimate of life and of human nature in all its variety. It shows us how man has acted according to his own pleasure, whether uprightly or wickedly, and at the same time, how God has conducted the train of events to bring about the purposes of His wisdom and grace.¹

-Rev. Royal Robbins, The World Displayed, in Its History and Geography

There were in the world at that time three outstanding nations who dwelt along the shores of the Mediterranean. At least they were outstanding from the point of view of their influence upon the course of history in Western Europe. These three peoples are the Jews, the Greeks and the Romans. The remarkable thing is that the influence of each of these is traceable to the limits of each of the other two. Or rather, these civilizations lived side by side, each acquainted with and influenced by both of the others. Our purpose is to seek to get at the genius of each people, its major characteristics and achievements, to evaluate that, and to point out its significance in relation to the Advent. Too frequently the idea of the fullness of time has been restricted to external and physical conditions. The preparation for and the contributions to the Advent are then limited to the universal language of the Greeks, the Pax Romana and the good roads and safe travel on land and sea of the Romans. These are very significant elements, but the whole realm of the spirit of the peoples and that in relation to Christianity is passed by. Yet that is surely the more important phase since Christianity is first of all a thing of the spirit. It need hardly be said that just as that is the more significant, it is too immeasurably more difficult. It is no easy task to get at and describe the genius of one’s own people. Here we have more than one, existing centuries ago, and in addition to the description we are compelled to give an evaluation. For God did send his Son in the fullness of time.²

-Ralph Stob, Christianity and Classical Civilization

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¹ Royal Robbins, The World Displayed, in Its History and Geography; Embracing A History of the World, from the Creation to the Present Day (New York: Published by H. Savage, 1833), 7.

² Ralph Stob, Christianity and Classical Civilization (Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1950), 39.

Figure I-1. Antonio Ciseri: Ecce Homo

For centuries prior to the birth of Jesus Christ, God had been preparing the world for the reception of the Messiah and the rapid spread of Christianity in the Greco-Roman world. The fullness of time had come, but the vast majority of the Jewish nation rejected their Messiah when He appeared. He came unto his own, and his own received him not (John 1:11).

In this picture, Ecce Homo (Behold the Man), we see that a nation’s fate is hanging in the balance. But clamor and hatred are tipping the beam, with direst consequences. The nation that rejects its heavenly King in favor of an earthly will ere long reject the earthly also, the white wonder of this Temple will dissolve in Titus’ fervent heat, and forever they who would not have this Man to rule over them shall be a People of Dispersion, kingless, and homeless, because they knew not the time of their visitation. This is the insight Ciseri gives us—the Jewish nation is sealing its own doom.¹

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¹ Cynthia Pearl Maus, Christ and the Fine Arts (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1959), 357.

Chapter Two

The Work of God: World Preparation

The death of Malachi not only silenced the voice of the prophet, but it ushered in a period lasting over four centuries, during which God Himself no longer spoke to His people. Israel’s prophetic era had come to an end with the passing of Malachi.

In most Bibles the period between the Old and the New Testaments is represented by a single blank page which, perhaps, has symbolic significance. ‘From Malachi to Matthew’ has for long remained vague and unfamiliar to many readers of the Scriptures.¹

Many people assume that because God did not speak during this time, that He also did not act in any significant, historical way. It would be a gross mistake, however, to suppose that God’s purposeful activity ended with the death of Malachi, and did not resume again until John the Baptist made his appearance in the wilderness. The truth is, that for centuries, both before and during the Intertestamental Period, God had been preparing the world for the advent of His Son. Without ever being aware of it, nations moved on and off the stage of history, fulfilling the roles that were assigned to them (cf. Acts 17:24-26). In fact, some of the most important preparations of the world were taking place in the 400 years between the Old and New Testaments.

Cultural and Political Preparations

The man God used more than any other single individual during this time to prepare the world for the advent of Christ is referred to several times in the Book of Daniel. One of these references is in Chapter Eleven, where we read:

And a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will. And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; and not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion which he ruled: for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside those. DANIEL 11:3-4

The mighty king was Alexander the Great, who ascended to the throne at the age of 20 years, when his father—King Philip II of Macedonia—was assassinated in the summer of 336 B.C. by a captain of his guards.

At the time of his death, Philip had already subjected Greece to the dominion of Macedonia, and was designing the conquest of Persia.

The young monarch determined to follow the glorious path marked out by his father; and having quelled an insurrection, which the fiery eloquence of Demosthenes had aroused against him among the Greeks, and destroyed the noble city of Thebes, he convoked a General Council of the States at Corinth; renewed the proposal of invading and conquering Persia, and was appointed, as his father had been, generalissimo of the Greeks.

Having assembled an army of 30,000 foot and 5000 horse, Alexander, with provisions only for a single month, crossed the Hellespont, and with these slender means commenced the conquest of the Persian empire.²

Alexander had crossed the Hellespont (modern Dardanelles) in the spring of 334 B.C. and during the next few years revealed to the world why he is considered one of the greatest military geniuses of all time.

More than two centuries of Persian domination came to an end late in the fourth century before Christ, when Alexander of Macedon and his armies moved east, sweeping everything before them. Alexander overran the Jewish homeland, and over the years he and his successors attempted to introduce Greek culture and customs there, as was their practice in all conquered territories. . . .

Although Alexander did not succeed in establishing a Macedonian empire that would survive his death, his efforts to spread Greek language and culture and to embed them in the life of the East proved highly successful, especially in the cities. He left as his heritage a string of Greek cities across the area of his conquest, outposts of Greek language and culture. Probably the largest and most successful of these was the great Egyptian center of Alexandria, which appropriately bore his name. It was here that a large colony of Jews settled and that the first and most important translation of the Hebrew scriptures into Greek was made.³

The world that Alexander the Great left behind was one world in a sense that it had never been before. Previously, there had been great empires, such as those of Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and Medo-Persia. And certainly various peoples and cultures had interacted, but never before had there been such a concerted effort to create a common world civilization as was actually brought about by Alexander and his successors.

It was Alexander who first projected the plan of opening a communication between Europe and India, through the Nile, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean. But he, whose will never bowed to man, could not resist the messenger of God, sent to call him to his final account. After having been the means of death to so many of his fellow-beings, he sickened with a fever, occasioned by his excesses, and died in the thirty-third year of his age.⁴

In retrospect it appears that Alexander was as much a missionary of Greek culture as a conquering general.⁵ In fact, his success in this area may be even more remarkable than his military feats.

Without necessarily subscribing to the theory that history is made by great men alone, one can and must grant the singular and outstanding historical importance of Alexander in giving a particular form and character to the world into which Christianity was born. Nothing is more important for human history and culture than language, and nothing promotes communication and understanding like a common language. Among other things, Alexander bequeathed to the Mediterranean world a common language, Greek. It was not the Greek of Plato or Sophocles, but another newer and somewhat simpler dialect known as koine, or common, Greek. This Greek became the lingua franca of the ancient world 300 years before the time of Christ.⁶

Although Greece had lost its political significance by the first century A.D., the koine language had, nevertheless, spread through all areas of Greek influence. As people from distant countries and divergent backgrounds came together, they could talk to each other in Greek. Perhaps they could not diagram complex sentences, nor speak with perfect diction, but they could make themselves understood. Needless to say, this gift of common speech was of great importance in encouraging commerce and other sorts of interchange throughout the Greco-Roman world. In the centers of Greek culture established by Alexander the Great, conscious attempts were made to promote and spread the manners and customs, the arts and architecture, the literature and science, and even the athletic games of Hellenic civilization.

The importance of this universal civilization for Judaism and its stepchild Christianity can scarcely be overestimated. For Judaism it was at once a threat and a benefit—a threat in that it tended to eliminate just those distinguishing features of life which characterized the Jewish community as such, but a benefit in that it made possible greater extension of the scope and influence of Judaism, especially Greek-speaking Judaism. For Christianity it was an immense boon. Without Alexander the rapid spread of Christianity through the Greco-Roman world might never have taken place.⁷

Certainly, the Christian message can stand on its own feet, and its foothold cannot be attributed to favorable cultural factors alone. Nevertheless, it is a striking fact that the spread of Christianity in the first centuries occurred principally in those areas which fell under the sway of Alexander’s, or at least of Greek, influence.⁸ The great city of Ephesus, for example, which was settled by Ionian Greeks and located about halfway between Jerusalem and Rome, was the approximate geographic center of the Roman Empire, as well as the chief commercial center of Asia. And not by mere coincidence, Ephesus had also become by the end of the first century the approximate geographic and numerical center of the Christian population of the world,⁹ even though the Christian Church was born in Jerusalem less than 60 years earlier.

When the Roman empire achieved supremacy, it is fortunate, or we prefer to say, providential, that there was no spirit of pan-Romanism. No effort seems to have been made to overthrow the Hellenistic ideals, to replace the Greek language with the Latin, or to develop an indigenous Roman culture. To expect the world to adopt a second universal language so soon would be to expect the impossible. Greek continued to be the language of the empire for several centuries. Moreover, the Romans were imitators rather than originators. Their art is largely Greek art, and other elements of their culture owe much to the Greeks who preceded them. Rome made a different type of contribution to the culture of the world; perhaps we could say it was more practical. Hellenism was an ideal. Pax Romana [Roman Peace] and Lex Romana [Roman Law] were not ideals, they were realities; and because they were realities, the Hellenistic ideal was able to take even firmer root than it had, and the unity of which Alexander dreamed was realized in the Roman empire.¹⁰

Alexander the Great had created a world, but he did not live long enough to govern it. To anyone who reads his life with care it is evident that Alexander started with an equipment of training and ideas of unprecedented value. As he got beyond the wisdom of his upbringing he began to blunder and misbehave—sometimes with a dreadful folly. The defects of his character had triumphed over his upbringing long before he died.¹¹ Nevertheless, Alexander, who was idolized by his men and hailed as divine in the lands he won, passed into the legends of three continents. In time, however, the task of governing Alexander’s world was finally performed by the Romans—the heirs to both his empire and ambitions. Caesar Augustus, emperor "when the fullness of the time was come (Gal. 4:4a), not only emulated his deeds, but wore the image of Alexander’s head on a signet ring."¹²

The Roman Empire, in contrast to the empire of Alexander, was different in both origin and scope. In Daniel’s vision of the four beasts that came up from the sea, the prophet has this to say in regards to the empire of Rome:

After this I saw in the night