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 book’s 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

Luke’s Gospel is book one in a two-book set Luke’s 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 Luke’s 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 Luke’s Gospel Jesus made people think about how the world worked where the rich were important and the poor didn’t 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 weren’t allowed to testify in court, and they did not usually go to school.

Luke’s 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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