The term “gospel” essentially means “good message,” or “good news” Over the past couple of weeks in class we have been spending quite a bit of time on the Gospels of the Bible; the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I attended a Church of Christ high school, and I remember discussing the Gospels in my Bible classes. However I did not realize how different these four books truly were, when they are practically telling the same story. In addition, it is also interesting to learn this information all over again from a Catholic perspective. Using the concept of metacognition, I am going to dissect the Gospels of the Bible, and apply some of the concepts we discussed in class.
The easiest way to begin this task is to go ahead and compare the obvious similarities and differences between these gospel accounts of Jesus’s life. In my opinion, it seems like the gospel of Matthew focuses on Jesus as King. Mark seems to be a detailed account of Jesus’s time as a servant, and Luke focuses more on the “human side” of Jesus. Lastly, the gospel of John seems to be more specific and detailed, focusing on Jesus as God.
The gospel of Matthew is focused on Jesus’s fulfillment of the Old Testament as Israel’s anticipated savior of the Jews, or the Messiah. Matthew’s Gospel is divided into five “books,” not including the prologue and epilogue. Each book is a significant speech that Jesus made, and is divided into two sub-sections: narrative and discourse. For example, in the narrative section of book one, John the Baptist is introduced (3:1-12), Jesus is baptized and tempted (3:13-17-4:1-11), and He begins his ministry and calls on the first disciples (4:12-22). In the discourse section of book one, Jesus is making speeches to the people concerning all sorts of issues, such as adultery & divorce (3:27-32), love for enemies (5:43-48), and fasting (6:16-18).
Jesus always seems to be on the move in the gospel of Mark; the author portrayed his ministry as very fast-paced and...