Four gospels. Bible

Tell me, why exactly 4 canonical gospels? Why didn't they leave one Gospel at the Councils of Constantinople? Why did John write the Gospel 3 decades after the previous three? Thanks in advance.

Hieromonk Job (Gumerov) answers:

The presence of the 4 Gospels is determined by the Divine plan of the economy of our salvation. The prophet Ezekiel (1:4-25) had a vision of four animals with human faces: The likeness of their faces - the face of a man and the face of a lion with right side all four of them; and on the left side the face of a calf in all four and the face of an eagle in all four(Ezek. 1:10). Some holy fathers (Irenaeus of Lyon, Jerome of Stridon, Gregory the Dialogist) see here a prophetic indication of the nature and content of each of the 4 Gospels. This understanding found expression in iconography, as the evangelists assimilated the symbols taken from Ezekiel. Each of them, according to the main events of the Holy New Testament history, at the same time, complement each other, more fully paying attention to any side of the Savior's Person: Matthew shows Him as a perfect, sinless Man (therefore, he was adopted as a symbol by an angel), Mark depicts Christ as the King (royal animal - lion), Luke as the incarnate God who offered Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of people (sacrificial animal - calf), John as conquered death and ascended to God the Father (eagle).

There should have been exactly 4 gospels, because this symbolically depicts the preaching of the Good News to all mankind. The number 4 in the Bible symbolizes spatial fullness. Their voices have gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world(Prokimen, ch. 8).

No one church cathedral cannot change the revealed sacred texts.

The Holy Apostle wrote the Gospel in the 90s of the 1st century at the request of the bishops of Asia Minor, who wished to receive instructions from him in faith and piety. Bliss. Jerome points to another reason for writing the Gospel of John at this particular time - the appearance of heresies that denied the coming of Christ in the flesh.

Any educated person should know how the Gospel differs from the Bible, even if he is not. The Bible, or as it is also called the “book of books”, has had an undeniable impact on the worldview of thousands of people around the world, leaving no one indifferent. It contains a large layer of basic knowledge that is reflected in art, culture and literature, as well as in other areas of society. It is difficult to overestimate its significance, but it is important to draw a line between the Bible and the Gospel.

The Bible: Main Content and Structure

The word "Bible" is translated from ancient Greek as "books". This is a collection of texts dedicated to the biography of the Jewish people, whose descendant was Jesus Christ. It is known that the Bible was written by several authors, but their names are unknown. It is believed that the creation of these stories happened according to God's will and admonition. Thus, the Bible can be viewed from two angles:

1. Like a literary text. This is a large number of stories of different genres, united by a common theme and style. Bible stories then used as the basis for their works by writers and poets of many countries.
2. Like Holy Scripture, which tells about miracles and the power of God's will. It is also evidence that God the Father really exists.

The Bible has become the basis of several religions and denominations. Compositionally, the Bible is built from two parts: the Old and New Testaments. The first created a description of the period of the creation of the whole world and before the birth of Jesus Christ. In the New - earthly life, miracles and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The Orthodox Bible includes 77 books, the Protestant - 66. These books have been translated into more than 2,500 languages ​​of the world.

This Holy Scripture of the New Testament has many names: New Testament, Holy books, Four Gospels. It was created by St. Apostles: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In total, the Gospel includes 27 books.

"Gospel" is translated from ancient Greek as "good news" or "good news". It talks about the greatest event - the birth of Jesus Christ, his earthly life, miracles, martyrdom and resurrection. The main message of this scripture is to explain the teachings of Christ, the commandments of the righteous Christian life and bring the message that death has been conquered and people saved at the cost of the life of Jesus.

A distinction must be made between the Gospel and the New Testament. In addition to the Gospel, the New Testament also includes the "Apostle", who tells about the deeds of the holy apostles and conveys their instructions for the life of ordinary believers. Except them, New Testament includes 21 books of Epistles and the Apocalypse. From the point of view of theology, the gospel is considered the most important and fundamental part.

Holy Scripture, be it the Gospel or the Bible, has great importance for the formation of spiritual life and growth in the Orthodox faith. These are not just unique artistic texts, without knowledge of which it will be difficult in life, but an opportunity to touch the mystery of Holy Scripture. However, it is not enough for modern man to know how the Gospel differs from the Bible. It will be useful to familiarize yourself with the text itself in order to obtain the necessary information and eliminate gaps in knowledge.

The Bible is the main book of mankind. It was written in ancient times, BC. The authors of this Great Book were people of different classes from farmers to Tsars. But for a believer, there is no doubt that God led the hand of each author.

What does the Bible include

This Eternal Book consists of the Old and New Testaments.

Old Testament narrates:

• about the creation of the world;
• describes the history of the Jewish people;
• contains many prophecies and predictions;
• tells about the past and future life humanity.

For two long millennia bible books written in absolutely different languages.

The Old Testament is written in Hebrew, part of It was written in ancient Aramaic. His texts were collected from 1513 to 443 BC.

It took almost two thousand years to write the Eternal Book.

The New Testament is the second part of the Bible, it carries the light of Christmas.

It includes:

• Gospel texts.
• Epistles of the Holy Apostles.
• Acts of the Apostles.
• Apocalypse or Revelation of John the Theologian.

Four texts were written by Matthew, Luke, Mark, John.

The gospel means the good news, it tells about the life of Jesus Christ. About the coming into the world of the Savior of the human race. About the birth of the Son of God on earth, His deeds, prophecies, suffering for the sins of the world and the Resurrection from the dead.

This part of the Book was written much later. The authors of the texts were evangelists who lived at the time of Christ. They wrote based on real events, passing on the memories of the Apostles and eyewitness accounts.

The New Testament is written in ancient Greek. The gospel was written in Greek. The period of its writing is from 41 to 98 AD. e.

The main differences between the Bible and the Gospel

The Bible includes several books, including the Gospel. The good news is only part of this collection.

The Bible tells about the creation of the world, about the Jewish people. The gospel is a description of the life of Jesus Christ, a story about His teachings, about the Resurrection from the dead.

The Bible was written much earlier, this process stretched for 1600 years. It is written in a variety of languages, the Gospel narrative is entirely in ancient Greek.

The Bible was written by ordinary people inspired by God. The gospel was written by evangelists.

In biblical predictions, more than once it was said about the coming of the Savior. About deliverance of people from death for sins.

The gospel tells of predictions that have come true. About the birth of Jesus Christ, who became the Savior of all mankind. About His simple life, good deeds, healings, teachings and how victory over death - Resurrection.

When reading the new part, the meaning of the Old Testament is most fully revealed. It is recommended to start studying the Bible by reading the Gospel of Mark, the most accessible and understandable for every person.

The Good News carries the Light, the Truth, the Hope for eternal life to all mankind.

The Bible is different from the Gospel, together they make up one Book, the reading of which gives wisdom and reveals the truth.

Bible- this book, which became the basis of several world religions, such as Christianity, Islam and Judaism. excerpts Holy Scriptures translated into 2062 languages, which is 95 percent of the languages ​​of the world, and in 337 languages ​​the text can be read in its entirety.

The Bible has influenced the way of life and worldview of people from all continents. And it doesn't matter whether you believe in God or not, but as an educated person, you should know what a book is, on the texts of which the laws of morality and philanthropy are based.

The word Bible itself is translated from ancient Greek as “books” and is a collection of texts by different authors written in different languages ​​and at different times with the assistance of the Spirit of God and at His suggestion. These writings formed the basis of the dogmatics of many religions and for the most part are considered canonical.

Word " gospel' means 'gospel'. The gospel texts describe the life of Jesus Christ on earth, his deeds and teachings, His crucifixion and resurrection. The gospel is part of the Bible, or rather the New Testament.

Structure

The Bible consists of the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament includes 50 scriptures, of which only 38 Orthodox Church recognizes as divinely inspired, that is, canonical. Among the twenty-seven books of the New Testament are four Gospels, 21 Apostolic Epistles and the Acts of the Holy Apostles.

The gospel consists of four canonical texts, with the gospel of Mark, Matthew and Luke called synoptic, and the fourth gospel of John was written somewhat later and is fundamentally different from the others, but there is an assumption that it was based on an even more ancient text.

Writing language

The Bible was written by different people for more than 1600 years, and, therefore, it combines texts in different languages. The Old Testament is predominantly written in Hebrew, but there are also writings in Aramaic. The New Testament was written primarily in ancient Greek.

The gospel is written in Greek. However, one should not confuse that Greek not only with modern language, but also with the one on which the best works of antiquity were written. This language was close to the ancient Attic dialect and was called the "Koine dialect".

Time of writing

In fact, today it is difficult to define not only a decade, but also a century of writing the Holy Books.

So the earliest gospel manuscripts date back to the second or third centuries CE, but there is evidence that the evangelists whose names appear under the texts lived in the first century. There is no evidence that the manuscripts were written at this time, except for a few quotations in texts dated to the end of the first - the beginning of the second centuries.

With the Bible, the question is simpler. It is believed that the Old Testament was written in the period from 1513 BC to 443 BC, and the New Testament from 41 AD to 98 AD. Thus, it took not only one year or a decade, but more than one and a half thousand years to write this great book.

Authorship

A believer, without hesitation, will answer that "The Bible is the word of God." It turns out that the author is the Lord God himself. Then where in the composition of the Bible, say, the Wisdom of Solomon or the Book of Job? It turns out the author is not alone? The Bible is supposed to have been written simple people: philosophers, tillers, soldiers and shepherds, doctors and even kings. But these people had a special divine inspiration. They did not express their own thoughts, but simply held a pencil in their hands, while the Lord moved their hand. And yet, each text has its own writing style, it feels like they belong different people. Undoubtedly, they can be called authors, but still they had God himself as co-authors.

The authorship of the Gospel for a long time no one doubted. It was believed that the texts were written by four Evangelists, whose names are known to everyone: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In fact, it is impossible to name them with full certainty as their authors. It is only known for certain that all the actions described in these texts did not take place with the personal testimony of the evangelists. Most likely, this is a collection of the so-called "oral art", told by people whose names will forever remain a mystery. This is not the final point of view. Research in this area is ongoing, but today many clergy have chosen to still tell the parishioners that the gospel was written by unknown authors.

Findings site

1. the gospel is integral part The Bible refers to the texts of the New Testament.
2. The Bible is an earlier writing, begun in the 15th century BC and stretching over 1600 years.
3. The gospel describes only the life of Jesus Christ on earth and His ascension to heaven, the Bible also tells about the creation of the world, about the participation of the Lord God in the life of the Jews, teaches us to take responsibility for each of our actions, etc.
4. The Bible includes texts in different languages. The gospel is written in ancient Greek.
5. The authors of the Bible are considered divinely inspired ordinary people, the authorship of the Gospel is controversial, although not so long ago it was attributed to the four evangelists: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

) - from the Greek word synopsis, corresponding to lat. conspectus. This name was given to them because they are very close to each other in terms of plan and content, which can easily be located in the corresponding tables. This term is not older than the 16th century (first encountered by George Sigelius in his Sinopsis historiae Jes. Christi, 1585). In each of the Synoptic Gospels, however, there are features; exegetics has even developed a numerical formula that determines their similarities and differences. If, according to this formula, the entire content of the individual Gospels (including the fourth one) is determined by the number 100, then the following figures are obtained: Matthew has 58% of content similar to others and 42% different from others; Mark has 93% convergence. and 7% excellent; Luka has 41% and 59%; John has 8% and 92%. It has also been calculated that the total number of verses common to all weather forecasters goes up to 350; then Matthew has 350 verses exclusively peculiar to him, Mark - 68, Luke - 541. Similarities are mainly seen in the transmission of the sayings of Christ, differences - in the narrative part. In Matthew, the narrative takes up about 1/4 of everything. Mark has 1/2, Luke has 1/3. When Matthew and Luke literally converge in their Gospels, Mark always agrees with them; the resemblance between Luke and Mark is much closer than between Luke and Matthew; when Mark has additional features, they are usually also found in Luke, which cannot be said about features that are found only in Matthew, and, finally, in those cases where Mark says nothing, ev. Luke often differs from Matthew.

The time of the origin of the Gospels cannot be determined with absolute accuracy, but must be attributed to the second half of the first century. The first New Testament books were undoubtedly the epistles of the apostles, caused by the need to instruct the newly founded Christian communities; but soon there was a need for books that would detail the history of the earthly life of Jesus Christ. The negative criticism of the Baur school has attempted to date the origin of the Gospels to the end of the second century, in order to undermine their historical authenticity; but already the disciples of Baur (Zeller, Volkmar, Gilgenfeld) admit the great antiquity of Evang. The latest discoveries in the field of ancient patristic literature speak in its favor. It can be assumed that Matthew wrote his Gospel around 50-60 years. according to P. X., Mark and Luke - a few years later, and in any case before the destruction of Jerusalem, that is, before 70, and John - at the end of the 1st century, in old age. The language in which the Gospels are written is Greek, not classical, but so-called. Alexandrian, the most common at that time. The books written on it could be freely read by the most diverse peoples - from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean to the Euphrates and beyond; knowledge of it was considered a necessary attribute of education among all the peoples that were part of the Roman Empire. From the authors Evang. Matthew and John were apostles and eyewitnesses to the ministry of Christ; the other two were those that are blessed. Jerome called them "men of the apostles". St. Mark, in all likelihood, was even an eyewitness to the ministry of Christ in the last period of His life; in the church from ancient times, the tradition was preserved that his Gospel bears traces of the direct influence of St. Peter. Luke explicitly states that he was not an eyewitness to the ministry of Christ (although, according to tradition, he belonged to the number of 70 disciples); but he took advantage of those records that already existed before him regarding the life and teachings of Christ. In addition, he, as the closest follower of ap. Paul, clearly depicted in his Evang. the views of this greatest of the apostles. Thus the gospels are essentially descended from the four great apostles: Matthew, Peter, Paul, and John. As far as the authors Evang. were dependent on pre-existing records of the life and work of Christ - this difficult question gave rise to many theories, often contradictory. That such records existed is directly evidenced by Luke in the introduction to his Gospel (“As many have already begun to compose narratives,” etc. ). It is very likely that already in the early days christian church a whole range of authoritative oral traditions circulated among Christians, which, under the guidance of the apostles, as eyewitnesses of the events themselves, strove to obtain a firmly established form. The orally transmitted legends, therefore, were soon entered into letters by some of the students; such records could naturally serve as primary materials and sources for those “many who began to compose narratives,” and the most reliable information from them could then enter the Gospels themselves. That the evangelists were not absolutely dependent on the records and narratives that preceded them is clearly shown by the great difference that exists between the synoptic gospels and the gospel of John. Forecasters tell almost exclusively about the activities of Christ in Galilee, John - about His activities in Judea. The weather forecasters mainly speak of miracles, parables, and external events in His life, while John discusses the deepest meaning of it. In general, the Gospel of John is distinguished by greater spirituality and, so to speak, idealism, which gave rise to critics to the assumption that it does not give a story, but an allegory of the life of Jesus Christ. With all the differences between the Gospels, they are free from contradictions; close examination, one can find clear signs of agreement between the weather forecasters and John, even in the presentation of the facts of the external life of Jesus Christ. John tells little about the Galilean ministry of Jesus Christ, but he certainly knows about His repeated long sojourn in Galilee; weather forecasters do not tell anything about the early activities of Jesus Christ in Judea and Jerusalem, but hints of this activity are often found in them. So, and according to their testimony, Jesus Christ had friends, disciples and adherents there, for example. the owner of the chamber where the Last Supper took place, and Joseph of Arimathea. Of particular importance in this regard are the well-known words: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem! How often have I wanted to gather your children as a hen gathers her chicks,” an expression that obviously suggests Christ's repeated or long sojourn in Jerusalem. Forecasters, it is true, do not speak of such a great miracle as the resurrection of Lazarus, but Luke is well acquainted with his sisters in Bethany, and in a few lines the character of these sisters depicted by him agrees with what John tells about the manner of their actions on the occasion of the death of their brother. Many of the sayings cited by John clearly resemble the conversations of Jesus Christ cited by the weather forecasters. Thus, the well-known saying quoted by Matthew: “All things have been delivered to Me by My Father” (11:27) is very close to those with which the Gospel of John is filled. True, the conversations of Jesus Christ among the weather forecasters are generally of a different nature than those of John: there they are popular, clear and consist of illustrative parables and explanatory examples, while in John they are deep, mysterious, often difficult to understand, as if they were not spoken for. crowds, but for a closer circle of listeners. But one is not excluded by the other; different ways of speech could be caused by different conditions and circumstances. As in synoptics, so in John, Jesus Christ is depicted surrounded by crowds of people; it would be difficult to understand how he could captivate the crowd with his word if he spoke only in the way John portrays it. On the other hand, all the fullness of knowledge about Christ as the God-man, which has appeared in the Christian church since the most ancient times, would have been incomprehensible if Christ had not spoken the sublimely mysterious conversations, which are set forth in John. If the weather forecasters expose a more human side in Jesus Christ, portraying Him as the Son of man, the son of David, and John, on the contrary, puts forward the divine side and exposes Him as the Son of God, this does not mean that the weather forecasters do not have a divine side or John - human. The son of man is also among the synoptics and the Son of God, to whom is given all authority in heaven and on earth. The Son of God in John is also a true man who goes to the wedding feast, converses friendly with Martha and Mary, and weeps at the tomb of his friend Lazarus. The synoptics and John thus complement each other and only in their totality give the most perfect image of Christ as He is perceived and preached by the church. Ancient Christian writers compared the Four Gospels to a river, which, leaving Eden to irrigate the paradise planted by God, was divided into four rivers flowing through countries abounding in all kinds of precious stones and metals. An even more common symbol for the four Gospels was the mysterious chariot that the prophet Ezekiel saw at r. Chebar (1, 5-26) and which consists of four four-faced creatures, resembling a man, a lion, a calf and an eagle. These creatures, taken separately, became emblems for the evangelists: Christian art, starting from the 5th century, depicts Matthew with a man or an angel, Mark with a lion, Luke with a calf, John with an eagle. The reason for this combination was the consideration that Matthew in his Gospel puts forward a particularly human and messianic character of Christ, Mark depicts His omnipotence and royalty, Luke speaks of His high priesthood (with whom the sacrifice of calves was associated), and John, according to the words of Bless. Augustine, "like an eagle soars above the clouds of human weakness."

Evang is recognized as the earliest of the Gospels. from Matthew. Its author, app. Matthew, was a tax and duty collector, and therefore had to be able to read and write. According to legend, he wrote his gospel in Hebrew, since he intended it to instruct his fellow tribesmen, especially the scribes. The Hebrew original was soon translated into Greek language, and this translation has come down to us. In accordance with the purpose of Evang., it proves to the converted Jews that Jesus is the Messiah whom they expected. Following the events of Christ's earthly life, Matthew at each occasion notes how one or the other of them is in the closest relationship with the Old Testament prophecies. Hence the constant repetitions: “this has passed away, so that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet may come true, who says” such and such (1, 22; 2, 15, 23, etc.). All references to the Old Testament in Matthew are at least 65: in 43 cases a literal extract is made, and in the rest - only an indication of the general meaning. Gospel Ev. Matthew consists of 28 chapters, begins with a presentation of the genealogy of Christ from Abraham and ends with the farewell conversation of the Savior with the apostles before the ascension, when He commanded them to go with a sermon about Christianity to all nations, promising to stay with them "all the days until the end of the age."

The Second Gospel was written by Saint Mark, who in his youth had a double name - John-Mark, and the latter name, being quite common among the Romans, subsequently replaced the first. app listeners. Peter wanted to receive a written statement of his teaching. In response to this request, Mark stated everything that he had heard from St. Peter about the earthly life of Jesus Christ, in an extremely visual and picturesque form. Evang. Mark apparently intended his own for the Gentiles. It rarely makes reference to the Old Testament, but often explains various Jewish customs, such as eating unleavened bread on the Passover feast, washing hands and vessels. The gospel was written by Mark either in Rome or in Alexandria. It depicts, for the most part, the time of the solemn ministry of the Messiah, when He victoriously opposed the sin and wickedness of this world. The Gospel of Mark consists of 16 chapters, begins with the appearance of John the Baptist and ends with a message about how, after the ascension of Christ, the apostles went to preach the doctrine of Christ. In it alone, by the way, an episode is told about an unknown young man who, on the night of the capture of Christ by soldiers, ran out into the street in one blanket, and when one of the soldiers grabbed him by the blanket, then, escaping from the hands of the soldier, he left the blanket in his hands and ran off committing naked (15, 51, 52). According to legend, this young man was himself a Ev. Mark.

The Third Gospel was written by Ev. Luke (Luke is a shortened form of Lucan or Lucilius), an employee of the Apostle Paul during his messiahs. travel. During these travels, he learned to understand the teachings of the apostle, as a deep reproduction and interpretation of the teachings of Christ in its various applications. This was the motivation for him to write the Gospel, which he specifically intended for a certain “venerable Theophilus”, who obviously enjoyed great respect in the church and wanted to “learn the firm foundation of this doctrine in which he was instructed.” Until that time, the first two Gospels were already in circulation, as well as other fragmentary records “about completely famous events»; but ev. Luke wanted, "by careful study of everything from the beginning, in order to describe" to the venerable Theophilus earthly life Christ, as far as he knew about it from "eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word" (1, 1-4). Since Theophilus, by assumption, was from the Gentiles, then the entire Gospel of Luke was written for Christians from the Gentiles. Therefore, the genealogy of Christ in it is not only from Abraham, as in the Gospel. Matthew, but from Adam, as the ancestor of all people. His life of Christ is presented mainly from the historical side, and the story is distinguished by thoroughness, especially in the first chapters, which set out the events that preceded the birth of Christ and accompanied it. The gospel consists of 24 chapters and ends with the story of Christ's ascension to heaven.

The Fourth Gospel was written in Ephesus by the "beloved disciple" of Jesus Christ, John, who, due to the height of his teaching about God the Word, received an honorary title; Theologian. After the destruction of Jerusalem; Ephesus became the center of the Christian Church in the East; at the same time, it was generally the center of the mental life of the East, since representatives of both Greek and Eastern thought clashed here. The first heresiarch, Cerinth, also taught there. Under such circumstances, it was especially necessary for the church to have a guide in the faith, to ensure against error. Having in the person of the Apostle John one of the closest witnesses and eyewitnesses of the "ministry of the Word", the Christians of Ephesus began to ask him to describe to them the earthly life of Christ the Savior. When they brought John the books of the first three evangelists, he praised them for the truth and veracity of the story, but found that many important things were omitted from them. When talking about Christ who came in the flesh, it is necessary to talk about His divinity, because otherwise people over time will begin to judge and think about Christ only according to what He was in earthly life. The gospel of John begins, therefore, not with a presentation of the human side in the life of Christ, but precisely the divine side - with an indication that the incarnate Christ is the original Word, the same one that "in the beginning was with God and was itself God", that Logos through whom all things came into existence. Such an indication of the deity and pre-eternal existence of Christ was also necessary in view of the false teachings spread by Cerinth regarding Jesus, whom he considered only common man who took over the deity only temporarily, during the period from baptism to suffering, and also in view of the Alexandrian speculation about the mind and the word (Logos), in their application to the relationship between God and His original Word. Complementing weather forecasters, ev. John describes, mainly, the activity of Christ in Judea, telling in detail about Christ's visit to Jerusalem on major holidays, along with other pilgrims. The Gospel of John consists of 21 chapters and ends with the author's own testimony that "his testimony is true."

The literature on the subject is extremely extensive: it is sufficient here to indicate only the most outstanding writings, especially those that served as turning points in the development of the question of the origin of the Gospels. This question received a scientific formulation in the 18th century, when researchers, not content with the traditional view, first treated it critically. Instead of the accepted view, according to which the Gospel was recognized as the first in time. Matthew. there were researchers who recognized Evang as such. Luke (Walch Garenberg, McKnight and others). But this theory did not correspond to the obvious data so much that the seniority was soon transferred to Evang. Mark (Storr, “Ueber den Zweck der evang. Gesch. des Joh.”, Tübingen 1786, and also “De font. evang. Matth. et Luc.” 1794). and all interest then turned to the question of whether this gospel should be considered a source, or an extract, in relation to the first two.

Griesbach (in his Comm. qua Marci evang., etc., Iena 1789) gave the latter the upper hand. This question was put aside for a while by the new theory of Eichhorn (in his "Einleit. in d. N. T." 1804), who recognized a special short work in Aramaic as the source for all the Synoptic Gospels. Although this theory has no historical basis and is a matter of pure speculation, however, it found ardent admirers in the person of Grau ("Never Versuch" etc. 1812), Ziegler and others. In its decisive form, Eichhorn's theory, however, did not last long, and criticism again took up the question of the seniority of one of the initial gospels: again, many researchers settled on Mark as the most ancient evangelist (Knobel, "De evang. Marci origine", Bresl. 1831: Reuss "Gesch. d. II. Schrift", 1843, etc. .). Then came the Tübingen school, with its sharply marked theory of the late origin of the Evang. (Baur, “Krit. Undersuch. uber die kanon. Ev”, Tub. 1847), and this theory occupied the minds of researchers for a long time, until the consciousness of its inconsistency brought back onto the stage the old questions about the primary source, which they still began to see in the Gospel Mark, although more refined criticism has found it possible to distinguish the actual Mark from the special Urmarcus, which served as a source for Mark himself (Weiss, Holtzman, Schenkel, etc.). In the end, criticism almost begins to lean back towards the traditional view from which it struggled to free itself. See I. F. Bleck, "Einleitung in die Schrift" (Part II. Ed. 4, 1886); B. Weiss, Lehrbuch der Einleitung d. N.T." (2nd ed. 1889). Extensive and very detailed, especially in the bibliographer. For the entry, see Viguru's Dictionary of the Bible under Evangiles, vol. XV pp. 2058 et seq. In Russian literature arch. Michael "Introduction to the New Testament Books" (translation of works by Guericke, M. 1864); his “On the Gospel and Gospel History” (2nd ed., M., 1870) and others. Feofan, in his work: "The Gospel story about God the Son", etc. (M. 1885). Wed at Brockhaus under sl. "Gospel".

Here only the canonical Gospels are meant; for the apocryphal gospels, see Vol. I, Art. 930.

Text source: Orthodox Theological Encyclopedia. Volume 5, pillar. 172. Edition Petrograd. Supplement to the spiritual journal "The Wanderer" for 1904