Source Of John's Gospel example essay topic

The new testament contains four (4) accounts of the story of Jesus' life, death and resurrection as presented by Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, The 3 accounts are similar, while Johns bible presents Jesus in a unique way. These differences exist because Matthew and Luke got their information from Mark and John got his information from another source, maybe John did not have access to the other gospels or he chose not to use them. No one really knows the source of John's gospel and we don't know for sure who wrote the gospels. Scholars refer to the authors as Matthew, Mark, Luke & John, this may not even be their real names. The Gospel were not first hand accounts except for Mark. John did not seem to have known the existence of the other 3 gospels.

The Gospels were wrote about 90-100 c. e. This particular Gospel was compressed from a number oral (and perhaps a few written) stories and sayings. The composer of Johns Gospel took some stories and arranged them in his own way. When considering the history of the Gospels and its origination, its essential to know the three stages.

First Stage: occurs during Jesus' ministry life at times of Jesus Christ. Jesus spoke his stories to make a point and in one wrote them down, Oral Tradition. Jesus performed miracles and retold stories. Second Stage: begins after death and resurrection. Christian preachers, active, what they have seen or heard. These early Christian missionaries were forced with such challenges as: Could Gentiles (non-Jewish) become Christians, directly or did they convert to Judaism first before adopting this new Christian faith.

Statement was translated to mean that when Christians were forced with the question of whether gentiles Christians should still practice the special Jewish food (kosher) laws or could Gentiles eat what they wished (non-kosher) and this would not make them unclean and unacceptable as members of the early Christian community. This means that during the second stage many of Jesus's ayins were not simply treated as things to be memorized. They were to be used as living words that would eventually guide Christian communities in all new situations. Third Stage: The oral traditions about Jesus were written down. If Marks gospel was already being used, why would Matthew and Luke want to write their respective Gospels as well? Each of the Gospels were written for a special group of Christians and for a specific purpose.

In Matthew's gospel we often find the phrase 'All its took place to fulfill through the prophet... ', introducing a quotation from the Old Testament. This suggests that Matthew is speaking to people who consider the Old testament to be very important and who are wondering how Jesus fits into history of the Jewish people. This problems means that Matthew's community was largely Jewish Christian and needed to be reassured that being a Christian did not separate then from the Jewish heritage. In Marks Gospel it does not contain many Old Testament quotations. Mark was not writing to a Jewish audience and so he did not consider it important to link Jesus' activities with the Jewish scriptures. a Jewish community (Matthew's Church) would need to hear about how Jesus related to Judaism; a non Jewish (Gentiles) community (Mark or Luke's churches) would want to hear the Gospel presented in a way that address their lives and situations.