The Gospel

Writers

The Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and

John) are the first four books of the New
Testament.
All of them tell the story of Jesus life, even
though none of writers actually knew Jesus
when he was alive. These stories were
written many years after Jesus had died.
Each Gospel has a different way of telling
what happened, and what it all means.

Each Gospel tells the story of

Jesus, however they tell it in four
different ways.
Each Gospel book has the name of
a male writer; so many people
think that each books author
must have been a first century
man from Palestine who had that
name.

There are many different scholars who

look at who might have written the
Gospels.
Some believe that men named Mark,
Matthew, Luke or John wrote the texts.
Others believe that each Gospel shows
writing from one main writer, and other
people added smaller parts to this.

The Gospel
of Matthew

The author of the Gospel of

Matthew was probably a Jewish
person who followed Jesus.
Scholars think that the author was
Jewish because in the stories and
texts the writer shows that they
knew about Jewish law, the
Prophets and the Old Testament.

These were important to the author of Matthew

and must also have been important to the people
who he shared the message with. So the
audience was probably Jewish followers of Christ
as well.

Today many people think that the Gospel of

Matthew was probably written between 85 and
90 C.E, which is years after the death of Jesus.
But we can never really be sure of the exact
dates the Gospels were written. Our task is to be
Scripture Detectives and look for clues in the
Gospels.

Matthew wanted to give the people of

his time a record of Jesus message
and ministry.

He had a special
interest in showing
how the coming of
Jesus fulfilled the
expectations of
the Jewish people
in the Old
Testament for a
Messiah

The Gospel of
Luke

Lukes Gospel is book one in a

two-book set. The book of Acts is
the other book in the New
Testament that is said to be
written by Luke.
The author of Lukes Gospel
wanted to write an account of
Jesus life for his readers.

At the start of the Gospel, Luke says

who he is writing for a man called
Theophilus:

So I made a careful study of

everything and then decided to write
and tell you exactly what took place.
Honorable Theophilus (Luke 1: 3-4)

Luke was a Gentile, which meant

he was not Jewish, and so his
audience was probably Gentile as
well.
The author of Luke wanted to
show that Jesus had loved and
cared for the poor and the weak.

There are 3 main groups of people

that Luke had Jesus meet in the
Gospel
the poor
the outcast
and women

The poor
In Lukes Gospel Jesus made
people think about how the world
worked where the rich were
important and the poor didnt
matter. In the stories of Jesus, the
rich are challenged to give up this
way of life.

An example is the story of

Zacchaeus, who was a rich and
corrupt tax collector. In the story
Jesus meets with Zacchaeus and
then he asks for forgiveness and
gives half of what he owns to the
poor.

The outcasts
In the Gospel of Luke Jesus met
with many people who were
pushed away from society.

In the Gospel of Luke the writer shows

Jesus mixing with people who were not
liked in his time:
tax collectors - who were disliked
because they worked for the Roman
occupiers
the Samaritans - a neighbouring
country
and lepers - who unclean, so were often
feared and kept out of the community.

Women
In Jesus day, women were seen as not
being as important as men. They
werent allowed to testify in court, and
they did not usually go to school.

Lukes Gospel shows how Jesus

treated women differently, by
teaching them, including them,
and treating women in need with
care and love.

There are many stories of women in

the Gospel of Luke, and Luke even
begins his Gospel with the story of
Mary, the mother of Jesus.

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