The Four Gospels

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Gospels

Central Theme:
Synopsis:	The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ
Series:	The Bible
Followed by:	Acts of the Apostles
First published:	somewhere between 66 and 110, varying between gospels

The first four books of the New Testament, chronicling the life of one Jesus Christ.

Despite the traditional names of the gospels, they are anonymous works. Modern scholars doubt that any of them were eyewitness reports - any statement disagreeing with that position in the trope list is a matter of faith.

There are four canonical gospels:

• Gospel of Matthew - This gospel compares Old Testament scripture with Jesus' deeds, to appeal to Jews.
• Gospel of Mark - The oldest Gospel, written for the Romans. It portrays Jesus as a miracle worker, and never calls him "God".
• Gospel of Luke - Written for Gentiles, it portrays Jesus as a Nice Guy who preached kindness and charity. This gospel takes the most in-depth look of the four canonical gospels into Jesus' origin story, and contains the most parables.
• Gospel of John - The newest, most introspective, and most theological of the four canonical gospels, it was written for Christians.

The apocryphal gospels - Epistle of the Apostles, Gospel According to the Hebrews, Gospel of the Ebionites, Gospel of the Egyptians, Gospel of Mary, Gospel of the Nazareans, Gospel of Nicodemus, Gospel of Peter, Gospel of Philip, Gospel of the Saviour, Coptic Gospel of Thomas, Infancy Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Truth, Papyrus Egerton 2, Diatessaron, Protoevangelium of James, Gospel of Marcion, Secret Gospel of Mark, Gospel of Judas, and Gospel of Barnabas - are all of later authorship. These are discussed only in passing on this page.

The Four Gospels is the Trope Namer for:

• Go and Sin No More: From Jesus' response to a woman caught in adultery (John 8).
• Obvious Judas: Plus, it's rather obvious which one of Jesus' disciples is Judas, too...
• Turn the Other Cheek

Tropes used in The Four Gospels include:

• An Aesop: The point of most of Jesus' parables.
• Ancient Rome: The setting for the narratives.
• Author Appeal: Luke, who was a doctor, notes several medical details in his accounts that the other authors glossed over, such as that the girl who Jesus brought back from the dead died of a high fever, or that Christ was sweating blood at Gethsemane.
• Author Avatar: The naked guy mentioned in Mark 14:51-52 was probably Mark himself.
  • And "the disciple who Jesus loved" referred to often in the Book of John was John himself.
• Away in a Manger: The Ur Example, of course.
• Back from the Dead: Famously, Lazarus--and Jesus. Other examples include a girl in Mark 5.
• Bittersweet Ending: Jesus is gone but the apostles vow to spread his message to the rest of the world.
• Contemplate Our Navels: John
• Crucified Hero Shot: The Trope Maker.
• Deal with the Devil: Satan tempts Jesus by offering him all the kingdoms of the world in exchange for just a little worship. Of course, Jesus didn't bite.
• Depending on the Writer: Jesus' character tends to vary quite a bit depending on who's describing him.
• The Dutiful Son: First appeared as the counterpart to the title character in Jesus' parable of the Prodigal Son. Jesus makes the point that he's not really morally superior to his wayward brother.
• Face Death with Dignity: Jesus, the Garden of Gethsemane notwithstanding.
• Forgiveness: A major concept in Jesus' teachings. Also part of his own Dying Moment of Awesome, when he prayed "Father, forgive them; they know not what they do."
• Flat Earth Atheist: Not quite atheists per se, but some people denied Jesus' divinity even immediately after watching Him perform real-life miracles.
  • Insane Troll Logic: After seeing Jesus cast out demons, the Pharisees accuse Jesus of casting out demons by the power of Satan. Jesus points out that if that were the case, it would make Satan's kingdom a House Divided.
• Flipping the Table: Jesus does this with the moneychangers in the Temple.
• Heaven Seeker: with Jesus and most of his followers.
• Intimidating Revenue Service: Whenever Jesus needs an example of a profession that everyone will instantly recognize as corrupt and sinful, he mentions... (prostitutes? pharisees? torturers?)... tax collectors. Justified, since in Ancient Rome tax collectors were pretty universally reviled for extorting money from their countrymen while being on the take. Also Averted, in that some tax collectors such as Matthew and Zacchaeus are shown to be redeemed.
• Jesus Taboo: Averted.
• Love Redeems: Very, very much the theme of Jesus' teachings, as exemplified in John 3:16:

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

• Missing Episode: The non-canonical gospels. John ends with him saying Jesus did a whole bunch of other stuff that he didn't have time to write down.
• Narrator All Along: "John" is written in a third-person omniscient voice, but at the end, the author confirms that the unnamed "disciple whom Jesus loved" was in fact John himself.
• Never Accepted in His Hometown
• Nice Job Breaking It, Herod: Matthew's account of Herod's attempted murder of the infant Messiah is the Trope Maker.
• One Steve Limit: Averted.
  • Among Jesus' disciples, there were two men named James, two named Judas, and two named Simon (one had to be nicknamed "Peter"). On one occasion, John has to introduce dialogue by saying, "Judas, not Iscariot, said..."
  • The Book of John, written by John the Apostle, opens up by introducing another John, John the Baptist.
  • Also, depending how you count, there may be as many as four women (and definitely at least two) named Mary, apart from Jesus' Mother.
  • There are even two Herods-- Herod the Great and Herod Antipas.
• Real Men Love Jesus: Oh yes. Most of the disciples qualify, for a start.
• Rashomon Style: There's a reason this page isn't called "The One Gospel." The four different versions of the story mostly serve to complement and expand on each other, though a few points are harder to reconcile. Among scholars, this is known as the "Harmony of the Gospels"; you can even buy editions of The Bible that lay out the four accounts side by side for easy comparison. For those who like charts, there's this chart showing what percentage of content the first three gospels share with each other.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Matthew 23 was this from Jesus against the Pharisees.
• Star of Bethlehem: Matthew provides the Ur Example.
• Take a Third Option: (Matthew 22) Are we answerable to God or to earthly powers such as the Romans? (John 7-8) Will Jesus say that a woman caught in the act of adultery should be stoned or not?
  • Both times, the Pharisees were attempting a Morton's Fork, but Jesus succeeded in Cutting the Knot.
• The Three Wise Men: They make their first appearance here, though Matthew doesn't specify that there were three exactly (that's a later tradition due to them bringing three gifts).