4. The Four Gospels from the One Gospel

When did the One Gospel begin to be put into writing? Nobody knows. As Pope John Paul II in one of his weekly catecheses says, "scholars fix the composition of the Gospels in the second half of the first century" (General Audience of May 22nd, 1985). But we can surmise the reasons for putting the One Gospel traditions into writing. One reason could be this: even though oral tradition was a perfectly safe way of transmitting the Good News (oral tradition was an institution with very strict requirements, not the rough-and-tumble affair that is sometimes imagined), the words and deeds of Jesus were felt to be too extraordinary not to enlist also the service of the pen to ensure their preservation. This need of the pen must have been felt especially when the first eyewitnesses started to be mowed down by persecution, as in the case of James the son of Zebedee (Acts 12:1-5). The year A.D. 42 may be fixed as a possible terminus a quo of the writing down of the Gospel traditions.

Scholars have done a lot of detective work regarding the writing and editing of the four Gospels. But all their good-will notwithstanding, what we really know about the process of Gospel-writing is really very little. The words of A. Plummer regarding the Prologue of Luke's Gospel (Luke 1:1-4) are still valid today: "This prologue contains all that we really 'know' respecting the composition of early narratives of the life of Christ. Luke's Prologue is the test by which theories as to the origin of our Gospels must be judged. No hypothesis is likely to be right which does not harmonize with what is told us here." What does Luke's Prologue tell us? He tells us the following things:

1. Many writers have preceded him in writing.

2. The subject matter of their writing was "the events that have been fulfilled among us".

3. Their writing was based on the oral preaching of the Twelve, "those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word".

4. Luke decides to do the same thing.

5. Luke has investigated everything carefully from the very first.

6. Luke intends to write an orderly account.

7. Luke's purpose in writing is to convince the reader that the things about which he has been instructed are based on fact.

The most important things here seem to me to be two. Firstly, Luke tells us that his Gospel is a writing down of the oral preaching of the Twelve. This is as good a description of the four Gospels as can be had. Secondly, Luke tells us that reading the Gospel will convince one of the historical reliability (this is the meaning, in modern terms, of the word asphaleia used by Luke) of the contents of Christian instruction. This is also as good a purpose for reading the Gospels as can be thought of. Unfortunately, this purpose is largely neglected today, but to our own disadvantage.

At the beginning of Acts, Luke refers back to his Gospel as the account of "all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven" (Acts 1:1-2a). This, again, is as good a definition of a written Gospel as can be had.

Some additional information as to why the four Gospels were written may be gleaned from the two conclusions of the Gospel of John. The first conclusion tells us: "Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name" (John 20:30-31) The second conclusion chooses to stress a) the reliability of the apostolic witness in writing, and b) the incompleteness of the written Gospel account. "This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true. But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written." (John 21:24-25). What a wonderful hyperbole this last sentence is! A hyperbole that shows that the written four Gospels share the respect for Jesus' mystery that we have seen characterize the original unwritten oral One Gospel.