Understanding the Context of the Gospels

Origins

• Each gospel was written for a specific purpose and directed to a specific audience.

• During the early times of the Church there were many gospels that told the story of Jesus’ life and it was relevant to the community that it was written for.

Synoptic Gospels

• The three ‘synoptic’ Gospels were selected as they gave the clearest representation of what the early church believed was Jesus’ message to his followers.

Audience and Purpose

• Each Gospel was written at a different time.• This means that some of them have used parts of other

Gospels to tell a fuller story (refer to the intro to Luke and the image from the previous slide).

• Each Gospel was written for different audiences (check your notes)

• So the story is different in some ways to support the audience.

Mark’s community is being persecuted, so the gospel story talks about the Struggles that Jesus must face just like the struggles that they are facing.

Matthew’s community is primarily Jewish, his Gospel focuses on building on Jewish traditions, fulfilling the law

Luke is writing to a group of established Christians who know the tradition but need some clarification.

John is writing to promote believers. He uses metaphor and imagery to inspire belief in God.

Your job

• You need to prove that you understand the features of the Gospels that show how each Gospel has unique features.

• You need to provide examples from the Gospels that prove the points you are trying to make.

• The remainder of the lesson, you are to search for passages that prove the statements that you will make. You already know the answer, now you have to prove it.

Remember

• Focus• Audience• Date Written• Image of Jesus