Questions about the Gospels

[oracle300]

I am having trouble understanding the constituents of the Gospels. Can you please help me answer these two questions. Thanks so much.

1. Match the contents of  the two columns by using the best matches. You may repeat matches if necessary.

_____Verbal handing on of  the good news about Jesus before the Gospels were written, while they were being written, and after they were written since for centuries the majority of people in the world could not read their own or any languages.

_____This Gospel contains about 90% of Mark's Gospel in the same or similar words.

_____This Gospel is known for its frequent use of symbolism and multilievel meanings and contains I Am sayings of Jesus.

_____Written by a companion of Paul, this Gospel contains 53% of the contents of Mark in the same or similar words.

_____This Gospel seems to be written especially for a Jewish audience and contains the Sermon on the Mount as well as information on the conception and early life of Jesus before His public ministry.

____Longest Gospel and written with outstanding skill in Greek, it seems largely aimed at a non-Jewish audience, prefers to speak of Jesus as "savior" rather than emphasizing him as "messiah,"  has much about women in it, and tells of the early life of Jesus before His public ministry.
Read Answer Items
_____This Gospel omits the exorcisms of Jesus, His parables, and the communion part of the Last Supper.

____Synoptic Gospels

____Written by Luke and sometimes called the Gospel of the Holy Spirit.

_____His letters outnumber the letters of anyone else in the New Testament.

_____Book also called the Apocalypse and written by a person called in one of the Gospels "the disciple whom Jesus loved."

A.     Gospel according to Matthew
B.    Gospel according to Mark
C.    Gospel according to Luke
D.    Gospel according to John
E.    Acts of the Apostles
F.    Revelation
G.    Synoptics
H.    Oral tradition
I.    No match

I think that I know the answers to some of them but my knowledge may be lacking and incorrect.
___________________________________________________________________________
2. Which, if any, of the following statements is accurate about the Gospels and Scriptures, according to the textbook and lectures.
A.  The four "synoptic" Gospels are called this because their texts can be layed out in order side by side across a wide page and read with "one eye."
B.   About 200 verses common to both Matthew and Luke have been found in the manuscript called  "Q," which still exists today.
C.  The "two source theory," developed in its current form at the University of Oxford in the opening decade of the  20th century, acknowledges only two sources for the Gospels: Mark and Q.
D.  Augustine of Hippo, a Catholic bishop of Hippo in North Africa, thought that the Gospel according to Mark was the first written Gospel and that Matthew copied from it.
E.  The order of the Gospels in today's Bibles is that now agreed by everyone to be the correct historical order of the writing of the Gospels.
F.  Determining the order of writing of the Gospels is especially important to scholars who since the 18th century have been on the "Quest for the Historical Jesus." These scholars have sought, without success and with only resultant contradictory conclusions, to liberate the "Real Jesus of History" from the "Christ of Faith." They hold that the material written earliest would be the most historically accurate.
G.  Those on the Quest employ a "hermeneutic of suspicion." They consider the Scriptures inherently suspect as history because they were written by believers to lead others to belief or deeper belief in Jesus.

I feel all of these are accurate, but I may be wrong.

[larry2]

Dear oracle300, after reading your outline I really do not understand your question, though I believe you're asking why the difference in the things told concerning Christ. At least I'll give a stab at it since none others did.

First in John 1:11. "He came unto his own, and his own received him not." He did not come to the Gentiles for the Jews must be preached to first. Romans 1:16. "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."

Why were different gospels different? Different men wrote them, and they were in logic form as to their intended goals. Matthew described Christ as the rightful promised King as the son of David, and gave His generations. Mark showed Christ as the Servant of God, and then He came not to be served, but Christ came to die for us as the greatest servant of all. Luke describes Jesus as man, and lists His heritage back to Adam. Not only was Jesus God, He was man also. John shows Jesus to be the God in His deity as creator, the word, and God with us.

Then we must recognize that not only the words Jesus spoke in person were His words. Galatians 1:11-12 says it this way; "I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. 12  For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." Paul's words are the words of Christ, and if you find problems between Paul and the other gospel writers, it is because the things Paul wrote of Jesus' words were hidden to the others. Colossians 1:25  "Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; 26  Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:"

Then last of all for this reply I will just say that the Apostle John wrote only those things Jesus said while he was in Spirit on the Lord's day.

In Jesus' name - larry2