Gospels and Epistles

Paper Summary:

Four canonical gospels make up the basis of Christianity - the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. This paper compares these gospels to epistles - letters written to individuals or groups of assembled Christians. The paper concludes that both gospels and epistles are essential parts of the New Testament. The difference is that gospels are essentially the history of Jesus Christ and his sayings by another person, while epistles are letters to junior churches regarding the administration of the church by an authority of the church.

From the Paper:

"Another problem arises from the large number of similarities between the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. This is the reason why they are called Synoptic Gospels which means that they have seen together. In comparison, the Gospel according to John is materially different in both narrative and dialogue. This brings up a problem in both assigning of authorship and also the reasons for similarity. The question is whether each individual was relating the scenes from the life of Jesus that he had himself witnessed directly, or were the three Gospels the result of the work of one person and then written by others?"

More papers on Gospels and Epistles:

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• Analytical Essay # 31164 : "The New Testament"
• Research Paper # 30067 : "Paul: The Apostle among Apostles"

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