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The New Testament Cover Image
The New Testament, 4/e
Stephen Harris, California State University - Sacramento
The Gospels: Form and Purpose

Outline


I. Key topics/themes

  1. The similarity of the Synoptic Gospels
  2. The uniqueness of the Gospel of John

II. Introduction

  1. Similarities between the Synoptic Gospels
  2. The uniqueness of the Gospel of John

III. The Gospels and modern scholarship

  1. Discrepancies between gospel accounts
  2. The Gospel authors' selective use of preexisting traditions about Jesus
  3. The Gospel of John written to provide a theological interpretation of Jesus' life
  4. The difficulty of distinguishing between historical record and theological interpretation in the gospels

IV. Assumptions and approaches

  1. The false dilemma about the value of the Bible posed by fundamentalism
  2. The value of a historical-critical approach to the Gospels
  3. The inability of the historical-critical approach to verify the Gospels' theological claims about Jesus

V. The Synoptic Problem

  1. Evidence of the triple tradition
  2. Evidence of the double tradition
  3. The two-document theory
  4. From oral preaching to written gospel
  1. The oral period
    1. The oral development of the Christian kerygma (proclamation)
    2. The growth and adaptation of the Christian kerygma in various Christian centers in the Mediterranean world
  1. Form criticism
    1. Gospel accounts made up of individual pericopes
    2. Search for the Sitz im leben or probable "life-setting" of individual pericopes
  1. The Q (source) document
    1. Collection of Jesus' sayings
    2. Collected ca. 50-70 C.E.
    3. Found in Matthew and Luke
    4. Portrays Jesus as itinerant prophet and wisdom teacher
  1. The composition of the canonical Gospels
  1. Mark as inventor of gospel genre
  2. Gospel authors
    1. Names of Gospels not original with authors
    2. Added much later by early church
  1. Matthew's Gospel
    1. Sources
      2. i. Mark
      ii. Q
      iii. M
  1. Written to present Jesus as new Moses
  2. Presents Jesus as teacher of the Mosaic Torah
  1. Luke's Gospel
    1. Sources
      2. i. Mark
      ii. Q
      iii. L
  1. Jesus as turning point in Israel's history
  2. Founder of movement bringing salvation to Jews and Gentiles alike
  3. Holy Spirit at work in the church empowering it to continue Jesus' work
  1. The Griesbach theory
    1. Mark a conflation and abridgement of Matthew and Luke
    2. William Farmer an important proponent
    3. Not accepted by most scholars

VI. The Gospel of John

  1. Last Gospel to attain canonical status
  2. Presents Jesus as teaching in long, philosophical monologues
  3. Venerates Jesus himself rather than his teachings
  4. Of doubtful historical value in view of many scholars

VII. Literary analysis of the Gospels

  1. Gospels studied as literature, with setting, characters, dialogue, plot, etc.
  2. Redaction criticism
    1. Gospel writers deliberately adapted their source material to express their own theological viewpoints
    2. Importance of studying how Matthew and Luke use Mark as a source
  1. Narrative criticism
  1. Emphasis on ways stories in the Gospels are constructed
  2. Important factors
    1. Point of view from which story is told
    2. Author's implied attitude toward characters or reader
    3. Use of geographical details to convey intent of author
  1. A composite portrait of Jesus
    1. Significance of four Gospels in the New Testament rather than one
    2. Early church unwilling to promote a single, "official" version of Jesus story
    3. Indication of great variety of ways Jesus was interpreted in early church

VIII. Summary

  1. Best to interpret each New Testament gospel as an independent work
  2. Importance of seeing each Gospel author's unique contribution to New Testament portrait of Jesus
  3. Unwise to attempt to harmonize differing views of Jesus in the Gospels
  4. Signifies the rich diversity of early Christianity








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