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Gospels
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Gospels are a genre of ancient literature concerning the life of Jesus. The word derives from the Old English word for "good news," a translation of the Greek word ε�?αγγέλιον (euangelion). This refers to the "good news" being told, that Jesus has redeemed a fallen world. Each of the books reveals, by preaching and reinterpretation, the story of Jesus Christ's life, the good news about Christ's life and presence. The word gospel can ... have a narrower meaning, especially when used by evangelical Christians, to mean the specific actions of Christ that are necessary for salvation.
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For conservative Christians, including fundamentalists, it is important to sustain inerrancy by ironing out narrative inconsistencies, since the Gospels themselves are literary texts that aspire to narrative coherence. Herein lies an important difference between the Bible and the Koran. The holy text of Islam does not take the form of a narrative, nor is its structure chronological. The suras (chapters) are assembled approximately in order of length, with the shortest at the end and the longest (apart from the Opening) at the beginning. The sequence ... corresponds, very roughly, to reverse chronological order: as you might find in a collection of letters or legal documents in a box-file, the oldest are at the bottom, the most recent near the top.
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New Testament documents (including the Gospels) have been preserved remarkably well. This, of course, is not true of all ancient documents. Caesar’s Gallic Wars can boast only ten extant manuscripts, the oldest of which is dated 1,000 years after the original. Only eight surviving manuscripts have been found of Herodotus’ History, the earliest of which is 1,300 years newer than the original. Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War is similarly attested to by only eight extant manuscripts, again dating from about 1300 years after the work was first penned. And these are just a few examples.
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Three of the Gospels reveal the parable of the "Sower" as given by Jesus at various times. Matthew 13:4 records the returns of the parable as diminishing .. and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. To the Jewish audience it would be important for them to know that Jesus was foretelling the coming Gentile nature of the original all Jewish Christian Church. The Gospel of Mark 4:8 .. and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred.
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Even if the Gospels were not written until 30 years after Christ’s death, that would still place the writing of them prior to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. This presents no major problem with their authority or accuracy. Passing on oral traditions and teachings was commonplace in the Jewish culture of that day, and memorization was highly cultivated and practiced. Also, the fact that even at that time there would have been a considerable number of eyewitnesses around to dispute and discredit any false claims, and the fact that none of the “hard sayings” of Jesus were taken from the Gospel accounts, further supports their accuracy. Had the Gospels been edited before being written down, as some liberal scholars contend, then it was a very poor job. The writers left far too many “hard sayings,” and culturally unacceptable and politically incorrect accounts that would need explaining.
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The Four Gospels were unknown to the early Christian Fathers. Justin Martyr, the most eminent of the early Fathers, wrote about the middle of the second century. His writings in proof of the divinity of Christ demanded the use of these Gospels had they existed in his time. He makes more than three hundred quotations from the books of the Old Testament, and nearly one hundred from the Apocryphal books of the New Testament; but none from the Four Gospels. The Rev. Dr. Giles says: "The very names of the Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are never mentioned by him [Justin] -- do not occur once in all his writings" (Christian Records, p. 71).
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