Why do the gospels differ?

The Bible contains four books called the Gospels; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Gospels are stories that try to convince you to be a Christian.

Each gospel was written to a specific audience. The authors put details in and took details out depending on who they were trying to reach.

Mark was the first Gospel, written in about 70 AD. He was writing to the Jews and the Gentiles, and he didn't waste words. His main point was to portray Jesus as the authoritative suffering Son of God.

In Mark, Jesus is the Savior. Mark uses a lot of repetition in his Gospel to get his point across. Mark has the distinction of using intercalation, which is the writing technique of sandwiching one story in the middle of another. He is the only Gospel writer who does this. In Mark's Gospel, Jesus is very human.

Around 80 AD, Matthew wrote to the Jewish communities. He presented Jesus Christ as a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.

The Jews were waiting for a Messiah, and Matthew gave them a spiritual one. Jesus wasn't there to abolish the "Laws" but to fulfill them.

Matthew shaped his stories so they compared Jesus to Moses, thus linking the Old Testament to the New. He knew that genealogy was very important in the Jewish culture so he incorporated Jesus' lineage into his writings.

Luke's audience was the Gentile communities around 80 AD. The gospel of Luke is known as the repentance gospel because he likes to admonish the listeners about their behavior. He details Christ's miracles but he doesn't relate his stories back to the Old Testament because the Gentiles weren't familiar with the Jewish stories.

Luke was very concerned with social justice and taking care of the poor. He viewed Jesus literally and as the answer to the world's problems. Luke wanted people to understand the way to salvation was through Jesus Christ.

Matthew, Mark and Luke are called the synoptic gospels because they have a lot of material in common. You can find commentaries that line up all three so you can see the similarities and the differences. This can be very helpful when studying scripture.

John is the Gospel with a difference. He wrote it in around 90 AD to both Jews and Gentiles. He emphasized the fact that Jesus was deity. He wrote about Jesus's signs, also known as miracles and chose to write down conversations that Jesus had with people.

John doesn't get caught up in parables, the Lord's Prayer, the Sermon on the Mt. or the birth story. He wanted people to know Christ's mission on earth and to get all people to believe. John wants you to know Jesus was fully human and fully God.

As in ancient time, each gospel has an audience today. You will find that some of the scriptures will speak to you more than the others.

It is all right to have a favorite.

I do.