Changes

Why are there four different Gospel accounts in the Bible? The first three seem to cover much the same ground. Wouldn’t one Gospel have been better? Why didn’t the four gospel writers collaborate and produce one gospel account? One could just dismiss the question very neatly, by saying, “Well, God willed it to be so—that we would have four.” But then the question arises, “Why did he so will it?” There are a number of responses to this question of four Gospel accounts.

:<font face-"TimesNewRoman" color="blue">B: The Gentile church did not wish to be Jewish, and they didn't knwo the OT well, having received the minimal requirements for being Christian, as Paul preached "Christ and him crucified". Meanwhile the Jewish church was digging deeply into the scripture to see the "mystery hidden from the beginning". They became more proficient in finding fulfilled prophecies with time.

Every 10-15 years, the newest scholarship was passed over to the Greek church which only had an incidental interest in learning, since the OT mysteries are hidden in the Hebrew language and scripture. They preferred to read the Greek translation; the Septuagint, where the prophecies are obfuscated because of the translation.

So each author demonstrates a greater proficiency in reading the scriptures. The new material added shows things that the church had not understood from teh OT previously. Changes in wording reflect the tools used to understand and better explain the mysteries. </font>

First of all it seems these enhance the sheer interest of the gospel data. It produces an interesting presentation. As some perhaps know, Christian doctrine is taught in the Bible by intriguing epistles, or letters written by Paul and other writers. And how doesn’t like reading a letter? In other words, doctrine is no put forth in formal dissertations, but rather very easy to read letters. In the same way the basic facts of the historical Christian faith are present by these four “penned pictures” to produce interest. One finds the personalities and the idiosyncrasies of each gospel writer are very plainly observable. For example, there are some writers in the Bible who could be described as “protractionist”. A protractionist is someone who says something in twenty minutes that anybody else could say in five. Like a college professor who makes a statement and adds a footnote, and puts in the parentheses and eventually gets back to the them he/she started with. That’s a protractionist. And someone like John, among the Gospel writers, or someone like Paul among the writers of the letters would tend to be protractionists. They just tend to go on and on, and that is one type of writer.

A lion is noted for its strength—it’s a picture of kingship; it is an emblem of which tribe? The tribe of Judah—the royal tribe, the Davidic tribe. Therefore, in Matthew’s gospel paralleling these seraphim, or this created being around the throne of God who is like a lion, in Matthew’s gospel Christ is seen as the Messianic King; The Promised Sovereign; coming to rule and to reign.

:<font face-"TimesNewRoman" color="blue">B: The lion is a judge. Lion is ארי 'ariy' which is play on words with אור ‘owr for ''light'' which is a metaphor for holiness, which is expressed through judgement. </font> Another of these creatures was like an ox, and an ox speaks of lowly service, patient, productive service or labor. And in Mark’s gospel Jesus seen as the powerful but humble servant of the Lord. The servant of Jehovah. The one who comes to suffer and to serve. The third of these angelic beings is like unto a man. Man being the highest intelligence of God’s creation. And interestingly doctor Luke speaks of Jesus from the standpoint of his humanity. He shows Christ to be the perfect ideal Son of Man, who comes to share and to sympathize. Notice all these first three, Matthew, Mark, Luke—lion, ox, man, all show Christ’s earthly life. But then the fourth living creature around the throne was like unto an eagle. The eagle that would soar into the heavenlies—and that speaks of deity or transcendence, or the one who is high over all. And that is what the Gospel of John is all about. John just soars above the clouds. He reveals some of the mysteries of the Godhead, and he shows Jesus Christ as the personal and incarnate Son of God who comes to reveal and to redeem.

It is interesting to note, just like we have the lion, the ox, the man, the eagle, so we have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, there is a parallel between them. Christ is not only the Son of David, and the Son of Abraham, and the Son of Adam, but also the Son of God. If that is not convincing, look at another parallel in the second chapter in the book of Numbers, where there is a description of the twelve tribes of Israel and when they were traveling, they were mobilized in a quadrangular formulation around the tabernacle—that is there were three tribes on each of the four sides of the tabernacle in the wilderness. Each of these tribes was under the leadership of the one tribe within that group. Each of these tribes had flags with symbols on them. In fac,t at the Brussels world’s fair in 1958, at the Israeli pavilion in Brussels they had these twelve flags of the various tribes with these same emblems upon them.

SLTJ:Ch 2