1.B 08. A Written Gospel

A Written Gospel The first instances when the word Gospel, euaggelion> comes to mean a written gospel come from very early in the second century. The Didache, the book known as the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles introduces the Lord’s Prayer with the words: "Do not pray as the hypocrites, but as the Lord commanded in his Gospel*’ (Didac Hebrews 8:2). Ignatius speaks of those who say that if they do not find a thing in the chapters in the Gospel they do not believe (Ignatius, Philadel Php 8:2). Polycarp speaks of the apostles who brought us the Gospel (Polycarp, Philippians 6:3)- When we trace the story, we find that the progress of the four Gospels is triumphant and apparently almost unopposed, Martyr (A.D. 110-165) quotes copiously, although not accurately, but practically never from anything other than our Gospels. Theophilus of Antioch (c. A.D. 170) is the first to quote the New Testament as a definitely inspired work on a level with the prophets of the Old Testament. He quotes "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14) and says that it is the word of a Spirit-bearing man called John.. ^Qrigen^ (A. p M.,i,,fer ^ft),, Speaks of "the four Gospels which alone are undisputed in the Church of God under heaven" (Eusebius, The Ecclesiastical History 6:25:3). EusshiUS. speaks of "the holy quaternion of the Gospels" (The Ecclesiastical History 3:25). And Easter Letter in A.D. 367 mentions no other Gospel but our four. It may be said that our four Gospels held undisputed sway long before A.D. 200. Very occasionally we come across quotations from or references to other Gospels, but, as far back as we can go, our four Gospels are the fundamental documents of the Christian Church.

One final point emerges. Did the Church always intend to have four Gospels, or did it ever have the intention of reducing or unifying them into one? The existence of four different Gospels obviously presents difficulties. For instance, the genealogies of Jesus in Matthew and Luke are different; John places the cleansing of the Temple at the beginning of the ministry of Jesus, the other three Gospels at the end; the first three Gospels declare that Jesus was crucified after the Passover, and John that He was crucified before the Passover; there are undoubted differences in the Resurrection narratives in the different Gospels. Did the Church ever have any intention of somehow making the four Gospels into one? There was in fact a deliberate attempt to do so. Sometime about A.D. 180 Tatian produced the Diatessaron dia means through and tessaron means four which was the first harmony of the four Gospels. For a time it was a very influential book, and it seemed possible that it might even supplant the four Gospels, But in the end it utterly failed to do so; it failed so completely that for many years it went completely lost. In fact the swing away from any idea of one composite Gospel was so complete that we find Irenaeus (A.D. 125-200) insisting that the fourfold Gospel is in the very nature of tilings: "As there are four quarters of the world in which we live, as there are four universal winds, and as the Church is scattered over all the earth, and the Gospel is the pillar and base of the Church and the breath of life, it is likely that it should have four pillars breathing immortality on every side and kindling afresh the life of men. Whence it is evident that the Word, the architect of all things, who sitteth upon the cherubim and holdeth all things together, having been made manifest unto men, gave to us the Gospel in a fourfold shape, but held together by one Spirit " (Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3, 11:8). Later Jerome was to take the four corners and four rings by which the ark of the Covenant was carried as a symbol of the four Gospels (Prologue to the Four Gospels in the commentary on Matthew). The Church unhesitatingly retained the four Gospels and unhesitatingly turned away from any attempt to turn them into one, in spite of the undoubted problems that the fourfold Gospel raised. Why should that have been? It was due to the dominating importance of apostolic witness and apostolic testimony. No document which bore the name of Matthew or of John, no document which was held to go back to Peter or to Paul could possibly be discarded. The Gospels were apostolic, and were, therefore, the essential documents of the Christian faith.

We have still to reach the position when the Gospels are sacred and holy Scripture, but we can already say that midway through the second century our four Gospels held a place of undoubted and unquestioned authority within the Church.