Page 402 - ILIAS ATHANASIADIS AKA RO1

This is a frustrating aspect of the Gospels. The situation is different with regard
to Paul, whose letters are extant and self-revelatory.

The force of his personality is in the letters, but the force of Jesus’ personality

must be found somewhere behind the Gospels.

The Gospels comprise brief self-contained passages, or pericopēs (from the
Greek word meaning “cut around”), relating to Jesus.

Further study reveals that the authors of the Synoptic Gospels moved the

pericopes around, altering the contexts to suit their own editorial policies—for
example, by arranging the pericopes according to subject matter.

In chapters 8 and 9, Matthew collects 10 healing pericopes, with a few other

passages interspersed. Mark and Luke contain most of those passages, but their
arrangements are different.

Matthew put all those healings in one place, whereas Mark and Luke scattered

them but in different ways.

Since the authors of the Gospels rearranged the material to suit their own
needs, it must be assumed that earlier Christian teachers had also organized

stories about Jesus didactically. That means that the sequence of events in
Jesus’ ministry is unknown.

Moreover, the Evangelists and other early Christian teachers also shaped the

material about Jesus.

During the course of transmission, the factual narrative elements that

surrounded each saying or event were stripped away, leaving only a central

unit, which was applied to various situations by the addition of new
introductions and conclusions.

For example, both Matthew and Luke relate the Parable of the Lost Sheep. In
Matthew 18:12–14, the parable is told to the disciples, and the meaning is that

they, like the shepherd, should go in search of the lost.