The Four Gospels: And Other Texts, A Critical Handbook of the New Testament: 1 - Softcover

Butler, Dick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0955486106 ISBN 13: 9780955486104

Publisher: Barbican Press, 2007

Synopsis

For more than one hundred years there has been a consensus among liberal New Testament scholars that the Synoptic Gospels (Mark, Matthew and Luke) rest upon lost, written sources. On this view the evangelists were not authors in their own right, but merely the editors of these texts, stringing stories together, like beads on a string. But now there is a growing awareness that all of this is mistaken. There were no such written sources. The evangelists were not editors at all, but authors in their own right, Christian scribes, Matthew would have said, writing Christian Scripture for the use of the early church. Very briefly, Mark's remains the original Gospel. Matthew's Gospel is a re-write and expansion of Mark's, while Luke's Gospel conflates the other two, with new material of his own again. And as we study this process it becomes apparent that each evangelist has his own individual overview of the story he tells, or retells. Mark thought of Jesus as the Son of God incognito, whom God had destined to die. Matthew thought of him as a teacher of Christian wisdom, greater even than Solomon. While, for Luke, Jesus was the model Christian, who calls us to discipleship. But, as before, John's Gospel still stands apart from the other three. It was written for the non-Jewish, Pauline churches and draws its primary inspiration from the Pauline Epistles. These new insights need not remain the preserve of scholars and can be simply explained. So this Handbook expounds and summarizes each Gospel in turn and includes chapters on the Birth and Passion Narratives, the Parables and Miracle Stories, the Lord's Prayer, the Sermon on the Mount, and the story of the Empty Tomb.

About this title

About the Author

Dick Butler was ordained in St Paul's Cathedral in 1960, served a three year curacy at St John's Wood Church, and was subsequently Vicar of St Luke's, Kingstanding, in Birmingham Diocese, from 1963 to 1975, and Rector of St Margaret's, Lee, in Lewisham, from 1975 to 2000. He has had a life-long interest in Biblical Theology, read Theology at St Peter's College, Oxford, from 1955 to 1958, and subsequently became a good friend of Dr Michael Goulder, the author of many scholarly books, attending his weekly seminar over some ten years at Birmingham University. Retirement has now provided the opportunity to explain these developments in New Testament studies and to provide a number of tables that make the book suitable for study groups, as well as for the individual reader. It is also a convenient reference book for clergy who have sermons to prepare.

Edition details

• Publisher: Barbican Press
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0955486106
• ISBN 13: 9780955486104
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 205