[Articles in the Summed Up series are intended to be summaries of chapters of selected theological books. The author(s) will be quoted verbatim for the purposes of ensuring accurate representation]
The Gospels in General
(pp.14-36)
A) About the author of the chapter:
Louis Berkhof “graduated from Calvin Theological Seminary in 1900 …
In 1902 he went to Princeton University for two years earning a B.D. degree …
In 1906 he was appointed to the faculty of Calvin Theological Seminary. He assumed the presidency of the seminary in 1931 …” [1]
[1] http://www.calvin.edu/hh/
B) Chapter Summary:
i) The Title of the Gospels
“The word εὐανγγέλιον passed through three stages in the history of its use. In the older Greek authors it signified a reward for bringing good tidings; also, a thankoffering for good tidings brought. Next in later Greek it indicated the good news itself. And finally it was employed to denote the books in which the gospel of Jesus Christ is presented historic form. It is used very extensively in the New Testament, and always in the second sense, signifying the good news of God, the message of salvation.”[1]
“The first trace of the word as indicating a written gospel is found in the didache [15:3], the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, discovered in 1873 and in all probability composed between the years 90 and 100 A. D …
The plural euanggelia, signifying the four Gospels, is first found in Justin Martyr, about 152 A. D.”[2]
ii) The Number of Gospels Recognised by the Early Church
“In all probability the earliest evidence that the Church of the first ages accepted the four Gospels that we now possess as canonic, is furnished by the Peshito, which most likey dates from the first half of the second century.”[3]
“Another early witness is found in the Muratorian Fragment, a mutilated work of which the real character cannot now be determined, and that was probably written about 170 A. D.”[4]
“An important witness, really the first one to a fourfold Gospel, i. e. to a Gospel that is four and yet is one, is Tatian, the Assyrian. His Diatessaron was the first harmony of the Gospels. The exact date of its composition is not known; the meaning of its name is obviously [the Gospel ]by the Four.”[5]
“In one of his [i.e. Irenaeus (c. 120-200)] books he has a long chapter entitled: “Proofs that there can be neither more nor fewer than four Evangelists.” Looking at the Gospels as a unit, he called them “the Gospel with four Faces.””[6]
“Another significant testimony is that of Origin, the great teacher of Alexandria of whom Eusebius records that in the first book of his commentaries on the Gospel of Matthew he asserts that he knows of only four Gospels, as follows: “I have learnt by tradition concerning the four Gospels, which alone are uncontroverted in the Church of God spread under heaven, that according to Matthew, who was once a publican but afterwards an apostle of Jesus Christ, was written first; . . . that according to Mark second; . . . that according to Luke third; . . . that according to John last of all.””[7]
“Church History VI, 25. Eusebius himself, who was the first historian of the Christian Church, in giving a catalogue of the New Testament writings, says: “First then we must place the holy quaternion of the Gospels.””[8]
iii) The Literary Character of the Gospels
“The Gospels have a literary character all their own; they are sui generis. There is not another book or group of books in the Bible to which they can be compared. They are four and yet one in a very essential sense; they express four sides of the one εὐαγγέλιον of Jesus Christ.”[9]
“The Gospels are not histories of the life of Christ, nor do they, taken together, form one history …
They are four pen-pictures, or better, a four fold portraiture of the Saviour a fourfold representation of the apostolic κήρυγμα; fourfold witness regarding our Lord.”[10]
“Each one of them gives us a certain view of the Lord, and only the four taken together present to us his perfect likeness, revealing him as the Saviour of the world.”[11]
“Matthew wrote for the Jews and characterized Christ as the great King of the house of David. Mark composed his Gospel for the Romans and pictured the Saviour as the mighty Worker, triumphing over sin and evil. Luke in writing his Gospel had in mind the needs of the Greeks and portrayed Christ as the perfect man, the universal Saviour. And John, composing his Gospel for those who already had a saving knowledge of the Lord and stood in need of a more profound understanding of the essential character of Jesus, emphasized the divinity of Christ, the glory that was manifested in his works.”[12]
Continue reading “Introduction to the New Testament (1915) [Chapter 1]”