Compare And Contrast The Four Gospels

The New Testament Cannon contains twenty-seven books of which four are pronounced Gospels. The four gospels are Mark, Matthew, Luke and John, which are all assumed to be written at different times by separate people. Mark, Matthew and Luke are all said to have very similar messages and therefore are grouped together to be called the Synoptic Gospels. Each of these gospels contains stories that are transferred from one to the next. There are some stories that have major differences, or may not even exist in other gospels. This synoptic problem has several possible explanations for this differences, but can be best explained by the four-source hypothesis. This explanation states that Mark was written first, then Matthew and Luke used Mark as their source of information. Matthew and Luke also contain similar information that is not found in Mark, which is said to be found in Q (a lost source but is proven to exist from this common material). The last two

sources of the four-source hypothesis are Matthew and Luke’s individual outside sources, M and L, which were used in their discrete gospels. One example of these similarities and differences can be found in the criticism of the story of The Rejection at Nazareth.
The story of the Rejection at Nazareth is found in all three of the synoptic gospels. This means that the original story was from Mark and Matthew and Luke used this as a basis of their writings. Each of the stories shares the same plot of Jesus revisiting his hometown of Nazareth. Once he gets there and started teaching, the people of his hometown began to question him and his wisdom and power. The common reasoning for this is that a prophet cannot teach within his own hometown because he is not accepted. Jesus reaction to this was to leave and teach among other villages. Even though the story is similar in each of the gospels, the writings are not the same. Matthew and Luke add or subtract from the original story in Mark to fufil their own personal desires of their gospels.
The first noticeable difference between the story of The Rejection at Nazareth is where they are placed in the gospels. A main theme in the gospel of Mark is that the Jews did not believe in Jesus because they were not intended to and that his identity was revealed in three different steps. The first of these steps Jesus’s private revelation at his Baptism in which God tells him “You are my Son, the Beloved: with you I am well pleased (Mark 1:11).” After this is the story of the Rejection at Nazareth, then Jesus’s identification is revealed to his inner circle at his Transfiguration, then to the rest of the world later at his crucifixion. The reason for placing this story between Jesus’s private revelation and his revelation to others is because it proves that the people of his hometown do not yet believe that Jesus is a prophet, calling him a “carpenter” (Mark 6:3). The story of The Rejection at Nazareth in the gospel of Matthew falls directly in the center of the of the plot of Matthew, and right after his collection of parables. The reasoning that Jesus spoke in parables is because the Jew’s could hear the word of God and the salvation of Heaven, but they could not understand, they did not want to. The placement of this story is to reinforce the idea that Jews can see the “deeds of power” but still have “unbelief” (Matthew 13:58). The Rejection at Nazareth is located toward the beginning of the gospel of Luke, right after his Baptism and fulfillment of power from God, but at the beginning of a list of similar rejection stories in different cities. The reason Luke placed this story here was to provide the orderly and accurate gospel that he was creating for Theophilus by placing the similar stories all together in an order that makes sense. Each of the synoptic gospels places the story of the Rejection at Nazareth in a different place to fit their themes.
Matthew often redacts parts of Mark’s version of the New Testament to better fit his purpose. One noticeable difference that occurs toward the beginning of the story of The Rejection at Nazareth is the ability of Jesus to do work on the Sabbath. Both Mark and Luke state that Jesus begins to teach at the synagogue of Nazareth on the Sabbath, but Matthew leaves this out. One explanation of this could be that Matthew thought that working on the Sabbath should not be done. Matthew believed that his gospel was going to be the new Torah, and the people who were to follow it better than the Jews. He believed that his people were going to be perfect students of the new Torah and to fulfill the requirements of the Torah seamlessly. This means that they were not able to do work on the Sabbath, as Jesus was doing in this story, so Matthew left it out. Matthew extracts another portion from Mark’s gospel that occurs toward the end of the story for a similar reason. As the people are in doubt and disbelief of Jesus, Marks version says “And he could no deed of power there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and cure them. And he was amazed at their unbelief. Then he went about the village teaching (Mark 6:5-6).” Yet Matthew’s version only states “And he did not do many deeds of power there, because of their unbelief (Matthew 13:58).” Matthew leaves this portion out for the same reason as above, he believed that Jesus should not be doing work on the Sabbath. Matthew makes changes to the original version of the story of the Rejection of Nazareth to better fulfill his book of the New Torah.
Luke’s version of The Rejection at Nazareth story is very different than Mark’s and Matthew’s. There are several parts added to the story and a few parts that are taken away. Luke’s version has a section in which Jesus reads a scroll that he is handed from Isaiah as well as a section of “truth” speaking of people suffering such as widows and lepers. An explanation for this is that Luke used his individual outside sources, L, to acquire this information. Luke decided to add these sections to his gospel because they enhance his ideas that he shows throughout the rest of his words. Luke focuses a large portion of his gospel on the inclusion of gentiles. This is seen where he states “But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up for three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was not sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha and none one of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian (Luke 4:25-27).” This shows the inclusion of gentiles in two different stories, which enhances the ideas in Luke’s gospel. The addition of these sections of the story also enhances Luke’s theme of giving away one’s possessions to be more like Jesus, the suffering messiah. This is shown in the scroll Luke read from Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight for the blind to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor (Luke 4:18-19).” This quote shows that Jesus has been sent to help those who are poor, blind, and go without, which is a common theme in Luke’s gospel. Luke’s changes to his gospel are made to show universalism and reveal the truth to Theophilus.
All three of the gospels share a common idea toward the middle of the story of The Rejection at Nazareth. Stated in Mark, “Prophets are not without honor except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house. (Mark 6:4)” This means that Jesus has no honor in his own town. This statement is also in Matthew and Luke, yet has slight changes. Matthew’s version removed the section that says “among their own kin”. The importance of Matthew’s redaction here is that this statement removes Jesus’s power from being seen of his family members. Matthew makes an important emphasis that Jesus’s genealogy goes back several generations, making him the actual son of David. This means that Jesus deserves the respect of his past generations because they also had great abilities. Luke’s version adds that Jesus states “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, heal yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here in your hometown the things that we have heard that you did at Capernaum (Luke 4:23).’” Adding the part of the doctor is just an example that shows that doctors do not heal the ones they know, just as Jesus doesn’t have honor by the ones he knows. Both Matthew and Luke have slightly different versions of this part of the story of The Rejection at Nazareth due to their own schemas but they all have a similar message.
Matthew, Mark and Luke all share the story of the Rejection at Nazareth, but each has a part of their own standards added to assist in the making of the gospel that they desired.

Mark wrote the original version of the story and Matthew and Luke followed his outline. The story was featured at different times in each of the gospels. Matthew redacted parts of the story out to better fit his idea of the new Torah and making his people better than the Jews, as well as accounting for the genealogy of Jesus being the son of David. Luke added several parts of his gospel from his outside source to write an accurate and orderly gospel and shows that people should follow the leadership of Jesus as the suffering messiah and give up their possessions to achieve salvation. Overall, each is written for their own agenda but are a part of the synoptic gospels. The synoptic gospels are three of the four gospels in the New Testament literature along with the gospel of John, making up four of the twenty- seven books of the New

Testament.