Summary: The Three Stages of the Formation of the Gospels

Summary: The Three Stages of the Formation of the Gospels

We have traced the three stages of the formation of the Gospels. If we were to assign chronological perimeters to these stages, we can date stage one, Jesus and the Disciples to the 1st 3rd of the first century (30 AD), stage two, the Disciples and the Early Church to the 2nd 3rd of the first century (roughly to 100 AD), and stage 3, the Early Church and the Evangelist to the last 3rd of the 1st century (65AD-100AD).

Jesus (30 AD)

Oral Transmission of the memory of Jesus (30AD-100AD)

And Written Sources (65AD-100AD)

Luke (80-90AD) ------------------------------------------------------------------Theophilus
(Gentile Believers
(80-90AD)

In this schema, we can see that it is Jesus with whom Theophilus is being brought face to face, but Jesus mediated through the memory of the early church and through Luke.

Notice the difference with the Epistles:

Paul (54 AD) ------------ Corinth (54 AD)

The Epistles have basically a one-dimensional historical and literary context. The author, Paul himself is presenting his own message, even when he draws on traditional material, speaks directly to the situation of the recipients.

The Gospels in contrast have 2- or 3-dimensional historical context. They are handing on, now in the permanent form of writing, the sayings of and narratives about Jesus (stage one) that are available to them as they have been preserved in the church’s tradition (stage 2). The Gospel writer’s own contribution (stage 3) is that of selectivity, arrangement, and adaptation according to the spiritual needs of their respective communities.

Having traced the three stages of the formation of the Gospels, let us spell out some important insights.

The first has something to do with the relationship between the four Gospels and the Church. The four Gospels were not presented to the early church as heavenly blueprints to guide them as it stepped out into the world. Rather it was the other way around. The church came first, a community of believers empowered by their faith in Jesus as their risen Lord and by the life-giving presence of the Holy Spirit. The Gospels, in a real sense, were the product of the life of the church: The church maintained the memory of Jesus and his mission. The church selected and preserved those moments of Jesus’ life that meant the most to a believer. And from the church came the evangelists, to whom we are indebted for the Gospels. Thus, the Gospels, and the entire NT for that matter, are truly a “book of the church.” The evangelists were not depending simply on their memory but on the faith experience of generations of Christians when they wrote the Gospels.

Second is on Inspiration, that is, the guidance of the Spirit. The focus of Inspiration must not only be the individual but the church itself. The power of the Spirit was present in the preaching, worship and teaching of the church. The power of the Spirit guided the young Christian church as it moved forward toward the future. The power of the Spirit, above all, helped maintain in the church the living memory of Jesus’ words and deeds (WE HAVE SEEN THAT THIS HAPPENED EVEN AMIDST THE TURMOIL AND PERSECUTION OF VARIOUS COMMUNITIES IN DIFFERENT GEOGRAPHICAL REGIONS AND CULTURES). The power of the Spirit gave the church the authority to keep in mind Jesus’ words and deeds not as a touching memory from the past but as a living presence, a presence that allowed the community to find new relevance in the ministry of Jesus as the church faced new situations.

The power of the Spirit enables the Gospels to present a portrait of Jesus that reveals him as the Risen Lord who is with his church for all times and in all places!

The third insight springs from the 2nd. If we want to know more about Jesus, we must turn to the Gospels. They are the privileged source for the life of Jesus. Anything the church or the individual Christian asserts about Jesus must be authenticated in the light of the Gospels. If a Christian longs to deepen his love for Jesus by knowing more about him, then he must turn finally to the Gospels. There is no other portrait worthy of our faith.

This third insight leads us to the final one. The Gospels have the power to enrich our faith because that precisely is their purpose. As we have noted, the Gospels draw the bulk of their content from the very life of the church. The church preserved those words and deeds of Jesus powerful enough to reach into the heart of the believer so as to give life. As St John aptly puts it, “These are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

So when a believer picks up a Gospel and reads it with a searching faith, he is duplicating the very process by which it came to be written. The Gospels are written “from faith to faith.” “From faith” in the sense that it was the faith of the church that maintained the genuine portrait of who Jesus was and what he was about. “To faith” in the sense that the Gospels were written so that the belief of Christians might intensify as they came face to face with the words and deeds of the Risen Lord.

Thus, to read the Gospels as it was meant to be read involves the very elements that produced it. There are three of them:

1. A CHURCH THAT GIVES MEANING AND CONTEXT FOR WHAT WE READ
2. FAITH THAT FINDS THERE NOURISHMENT AND LIFE
3. THE SPIRIT WHO BREATHES MEANING INTO OUR CHRISTIAN

EXISTENCE.