Four Faces of the Gospel
Part 6: Matthew’s Gospel and Early Jewish Christians
In his second-century treatise Against Heresies Irenaeus writes concerning the origin of the first Gospel, “Matthew also issued a written Gospel among the Hebrews in their own dialect, while Peter and Paul were… Continue reading
Part 5: The Lion, Judah, and the Jews
Are the traditional titles for the lion, “king of beasts” and “king of the jungle,” undeserved? The largest land carnivore is not the lion but the polar bear. The lion is not even the largest… Continue reading
Part 4: The Birth of Gospel Scholarship
In 1776 the German scholar Johannes Griesback published a text of the first three New Testament Gospels in a special format for convenient study. He called this work a “synopsis,” meaning not a summary but… Continue reading
Part 3: Problems with the Opinions of the Church Fathers
In the last post I examined the claim of certain church fathers that a quartet of creatures seen in visions recorded in Ezekiel and Revelation—consisting of a man, lion, bull, and eagle—correspond symbolically to… Continue reading
Part 2: Church Fathers on Unity of the Gospels
For Christian readers of the New Testament Gospels, apparent contradictions between certain passages (e.g. Matt 9:18; Mark 5:23) do not diminish the agreement of the four documents at the deepest level. To believers the evangelists… Continue reading
Part 1: Were the Gospels Inspired?
Are the New Testament Gospels reliable? What evidence is there that they are inspired? Does even asking these questions amount to a rejection of God’s word?
During Paul’s second missionary journey as described in Acts… Continue reading
