1 Jesus, 4 Portraits: Why You Need Each Gospel’s Narrative Theology
You will be confronted with a difficult decision. The Gospels —and especially the three Synoptic Gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke—have many of the same stories, some in nearly identical language. I had to decide whether I would teach each Gospel individually or whether I would teach the four together, combining them into a single “life of Christ” or “harmony of the Gospels.". I looked to see what other professors were doing and found that both approaches are quite common. Both also have a long history in the church. The most important early attempt to bring the four together into one story was the Diatessaron (meaning “through the four”), a harmony of the Gospels produced by the early Church Father Tatian around AD 170. Tatian’s work was very popular in its day and became the primary text of the Gospels in the Syrian church until around 400. In the end, however, the church chose to retain the four individual Gospels. This was the right decision both theologically and ...