Three wasnt enough and five would be just plain showing off....................
~Hill
Why are there four gospels?
by jaffacake 43 Replies latest jw friends
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jaffacake
"I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!" (Galatians 1:6-9)
This is in my top five favourite scriptures, so I'm copying it again
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Leolaia
It is important to recognize that the role of Marcion in the formation of the NT canon. Marcion argued for the use of only one gospel, a shorter version of Luke, and the crystallization within proto-orthodoxy of a fourfold gospel canon can be seen as part of an anti-Marcion agenda (cf. also the later anti-Marcionite prologues to the gospels). It certainly was in place by the end of the second century, as attested by Irenaeus; the gospel canon could be thought of as attaining fixity earlier than other parts of the NT (the Pauline correspondence, and especially the catholic epistles which remained in flux for some time). Even in the 150s we find evidence of a proto-orthodox acceptance of four gospels, as attested in Justin Martyr's gospel harmony likely utilized by Tatian; it was not universal however, as the nearly contemporaneous 2 Clement depends on a harmony + noncanonical sayings tradition. Still earlier we have the comments of Papias of Hierapolis, who discussed his acceptance of Mark and some form of Matthew, and likely shows knowledge of John (and Luke, if a recent suggestion is to be accepted, that a patristic reference to Luke be treated as an unattributed fragment of Papias), tho Papias clearly expressed a preference to the living oral tradition than the written gospels. Still earlier sources (such as the Didache, James, etc.) show knowledge of only one gospel, or the oral sayings tradition.
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gumby
I guess the rest of the bible writers other than the gospel writers didn't feel a need to use Jesus's own earthly record such as his miraculous powers he performed and all the talk about his ressurection in their defence for Jesus being the true savior......since none of them bothered to mention anything about his earthly existence. What gets me is......nobody seems to be bothered by it.
The church fathers did a lousy job in making a sensible record of the life of Jesus. I'll bet if I had all the writings about Jesus by the 4th century when the canon was completed.....I coulda made a more believable story that was consistent. Then I have a buncha people read it first and tell me if it made any sense. If mosta them agreed it did....I'd publish the sucker!
Gumby
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stillajwexelder
gumby - go and get laid
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gumby
I did that like 5 or 9 days ago dude.
Gumby
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a Christian
Why four Gospels? Because four is the number the Bible always uses when making a symbolic reference to Christ. For instance, the Bible's creation account tells us that the sun, moon and stars first appeared in earth's skies on the 4th creative day. And the Bible symbolically connects this 4th "day" of creation with Jesus Christ by calling Him "the light of the world." (Genesis 1:14-19; John 8:12) The Bible does the same thing with the numbers 40 (10 X 4) and 400 (100 X 4). These numbers ( 4, 40 and 400) were used so often and so prominently in the Bible for the
purpose of directing our attention to Jesus Christ. Rain fell from the sky for "40 days and 40 nights" causing the flood of Noah's day.
(Genesis 7:11,12) Like the 40 days of rain which washed away all wickedness from the land in Noah's day, Christ's coming was prophesied to also be "like showers watering the earth." For, like the rains which cleansed the land in the days of Noah, the Bible tells us that the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ "cleanses us from all sin." (Genesis 6:11-17; Psalms 72:6; 1John 1:7) Moses was on Mount Sinai communicating with God on two separate occasions, each time for "40 days and 40 nights."(Exodus 24:18; 34:28) As Moses mediated the Old Covenant between God and the Israelites during 40 day
periods of time, Jesus Christ now acts as the Mediator of the New Covenant which He, by His death, established with Christians. (Exodus 19:3-9; Matthew 26:28; Hebrews 8:6; 9:15) The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for "40 years" before entering the land God had promised them. (Numbers 32:13; Joshua 23:5) As the Israelites wandered in the Sinai wilderness for 40 years prior to the time God gave them their promised land, all mankind was lost in a spiritual wilderness before God gave us our promised Savior. (Luke 19:10) The first three kings of Israel, Saul, David and Solomon, each ruled for "40 years."(Acts 13:21; 1 Kings 2:10,11; 11:42) As Saul, who ruled for 40 years, was Israel's first king, Jesus Christ is "the First and the Last" "King" of "the Israel of God." (Revelation 1:17; 1Timothy 6:15; Galatians
6:16) Long after David Had ruled Israel for 40 years Isaiah prophesied that the promised Savior, Jesus Christ, would "reign on David's throne and over his kingdom." For this reason Jesus was called "the son of David."(Isaiah 9:6,7; Luke 1:32; Matthew 1:1) Many spiritual connections can be found in the Bible between Solomon, who ruled all
Israel for 40 years, and Jesus Christ. Solomon, for instance, built God's Temple in
Jerusalem. While Jesus Christ built God's spiritual Temple.(1Kings 6:1-38; Matthew
16:15-18; 1Corinthians 3:11,16) For this reason, and others, the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is "greater than Solomon."(Matthew 12:42) Jonah, best known for spending "three days and three nights" in the belly of "a great fish", was ordered by God to prophesy that the city of Nineveh would be overthrown in "forty more days".(Jonah 1:17; 3:1-4) The spiritual connection between Jonah, who prophesied that Nineveh would be
overthrown in "40 more days,? and Jesus Christ was firmly established by Jesus Himself. For He said, ?as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish", so Christ would "be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth?, after His death and before His resurrection. (Matthew 12:40) Before beginning His ministry Jesus fasted for "40 days and 40 nights." (Luke 4:1,2) Just before He began His ministry Jesus Christ fasted for 40 days. At the end of those 40 days "He was hungry." And so were those who had been eagerly anticipating the arrival of mankind's long awaited Savior. For their "hunger" had been "for righteousness", a hunger which only Jesus Christ could satisfy, and a righteousness which only Jesus Christ Himself could give them. (Matthew 4:2; 5:6; John 6:35; Romans 3:21,22) One well known example of the Bible's use of the # 400 involves the period of time that Abraham's descendants were "enslaved and oppressed" before being set free from their bondage in Egypt. The Bible tells us that period of time was "400 years." (Gen. 15:13) The Bible also says that, much like the Israelites, all mankind had once been enslaved and oppressed for a long period of time. However, this slavery and oppression was by sin and death, from which, the Bible tells us, Jesus Christ came to set us free. We are told Christ did so by buying with His own life both God's forgiveness and immortality for all who will accept Him as their Lord. (Genesis 15:13; Matthew 20:28; Luke 4:18; Ephesians 1:7; John 3:16; 1Corinthians 15:54) Interestingly, the Bible tells us that the Israelites' 400 years of oppression and slavery came to an end immediately following a plague in which God took the life of every firstborn son in Egypt. It also tells us that all mankind was offered freedom from the oppression and slavery of sin and death immediately following the death of God's Firstborn Son, Jesus Christ. (Exodus 11:4,5; Hebrews 11:28; Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:5,6) A thorough examination of the Bible's symbolic use of the numbers 4, 40 and 400 shows that the Bible always uses these numbers to point to Jesus Christ. How do the numbers 4, 40 and 400 point to Jesus Christ? They do so because they are short forms of the number 4000, the exact number of years that passed between the creation of Adam and the earthly birth of Jesus Christ, according to the Bible's own very precise chronological, historical record. From the time of Adam an elaborate chronological, historical record was kept, which was preserved in the Bible and can be used to confirm the year of Christ's birth, as counted from the time of Adam's creation. Following the Bible's own chronological historical record we find that Adam's creation took place in the year 4004 BC. If we call that year "year number 1," and then date Christ's birth to the year 5 BC, as the best New Testament historians now do, we find that Christ was born in the year "4000". Just as Bishop Ussher's studies of history and Scripture determined in the year 1650. Mankind's Savior was destined to be born in the year "4000." And He was. That's what all the 4s, 40s and 400s are about in the Bible. And that's why there are four Gospels. By the way, JWs date Adam's creation over 20 years too early, in 4026 BC. Why? Because they say Jerusalem was destroyed by Babylon in 607 BC, rather than the correct date of 587/6 BC. -
trevor
If the writers of the Bible had claimed to be speaking for themselves, and not for God, then we would know the Bible was just another man-made invention. But the authors, on many occasions, claimed that they were writing the Words of God himself. 2 Peter 1:20-21 explains: "Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."
2 Timothy 3:16 declares: "All Scripture is God-breathed?" If the Bible did not claim this, it would certainly not have formed the foundation of belief for hundreds of millions throughout history! Since it declares that it alone is the Word of God, the Bible cannot be "just a good book" or "just a nice piece of literature." Either it is a fake, lying about itself, or it is the true Word of God.
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LittleToe
Trevor:
Why is it that you're giving the impression that you have difficulty understanding that this thread is about the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John)?Try, for a moment, to take off the blinkers of "the canon must be taken as a whole or not at all" and focus on the issue at hand.
Your Galatians quote is interesting, but bears no direct relevance to the question, as the written gospels had not been formulated at the point the letter was written!
The same can be said of the first letter to Timothy - this was revealing Paul's opinion of the Law and the Prophets - distinctly Old Testament writings.
As Leo has suggested, there was a wide range of opinion on the subject of canonicity, throughout those early centuries.
Gumby:What was the aim of the fourth century counsils?
Was it really to tidy things up, or to preserve the accounts that were held dear to the various groups that they were trying to unite? -
trevor
Little toe
You mention that you love the Gospel of John, and the letters attributed to an author of the same name. How about The Revelation to John by the same author?
You are taking pieces of the Bible and separating them from the whole. As the scriptures I have quoted show, this is not allowed. It is only by wearing blinkers that such selectivity is possible. The canon must be taken as a whole in entirety with the Bible. If it does not add up then the writers claim of inspiration by holy spirit is a lie. The long post by a Christian shows that all the Scriptures in the Bible are interlinked and intended to offer a coherent and inspired account of Gods will for man.
Do you have a problem with the guy recording his dreams/nightmares and adding a few cautions to a contemporary religious group that were being persecuted by Rome?
When someone presents their diary as the inspired word of God, claims that they are chosen and announces that those who do not accept this startling assertion will be killed - yes I do have a problem. The problem is taking such nonsense seriously.
If you choose to it is your party but I also have difficulty understanding how a man of your obvious intelligence can try to defend such duplicity.