Page 10 - MY GREAT LOVE FOR JESUS LED ME TO TROUTH

The Gospels

The Gospels provide an account describing the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus
Christ, which were written by a number of people based on what they had heard about
him or on information which was available to them about him. While there is no conclusive
evidence, rumors have always circulated that the Canonical Gospels of Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John, which came to be accepted as part of the New Testament, were written
between 70 CE and 125 CE, and biblical scholars are not generally agreed regarding this.
"Before 140 A.D.," we read in the introduction to the French New Testament, p. 9, "there
was, in any case, no account by which one might have recognized a collection of evangelic
writings." Some scholars of textual criticism of the New Testament mention that the
Gospels were written in the second century based on oral traditions and some documents
which were later lost. Then they were attributed to famous people who were not the
actual writers of the Gospels in order to win people's approval. These were preceded by
Paul's Epistles and the Q document. The first written gospel was the Gospel of
Mark,[1] followed by the Gospel of Matthew[2] and then by the Gospel of
Luke,[3] commonly known as the Synoptic Gospels because they include many of the
same stories, often in a similar sequence and in similar wording. It is obvious that the
authors of Mathew and Luke had Mark's work open in front of them when they wrote
their versions, a fact easily established by comparing the texts. Mathew incorporates
about 90% of Mark, and Luke retains over 50%. Matthew and Luke have other material
in common that does not appear in Mark. German bible critics have posited the existence
of a Q document to which they must have had access. The M document, a hypothetical
textual source for the Gospel of Matthew, is that special material of the Gospel of Matthew
that is neither Q-source nor Mark. Luke also took for his sources a collection of material
called the L (for Luke) source. John's Gospel,[4] which is generally considered to be the
last of the four canonical Gospels to be written, reflects a Christian tradition that is
different from that of the other gospels.
The Gospels were composed after the first followers of Jesus had been divided into
several sects. It can be confirmed that they were written in order to reflect the
conceptions of their respective writers. Although traditional sources were used for writing
the Gospels, the writers, who only cared about their personal interests, did not exercise
great care to keep the original content free from additions, deletions and other forms of
corruption. This fact was confirmed by numerous Christian authorities[5] and even
mentioned by the Qur'an over 14 centuries ago. Therefore, the four Gospels, in addition