Bible Challenge - Section Two - The Gospels

We are beginning the second section of the Bible Challenge - in this section we read the four Gospels - the books that tell us the story of the life and teachings of Jesus.

We start with the Gospel of Matthew.

A few points about the Gospels - they are not first person stories.  They were written between 65 and 100 AD, so between 35 and 70 years after the death of Jesus.  None of them were written by disciples of Jesus - they were all written by students of the disciples.

The first generation of Christians believed that Jesus was returning soon and that their most important task was to tell the story of Jesus to as many people as possible and get as many people to believe as possible before Jesus returned.  It's only after the first generation of Christians begins to die that they begin to think that maybe Jesus isn't coming back as soon as they thought and that it was important to write down those stories.  Between about 65 and about 110 AD there were somewhere around 20 different Gospels circulating among the Christian communities.  In the 300's when the Bible as we know it was being developed the councils decided that there were four that should be included - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Each of the four Gospels are written for different audiences and with different purposes.  Matthew was written to the community of Jewish followers of Jesus and one of it's principle purposes was to show how Jesus and his teachings were a continuation of the story of the people of Israel.

Matthew starts with a genealogy - setting Jesus in the context of the history of the people of Israel.  It also gives a story of Jesus' birth that connects him to the house of David - but also demonstrates that he will draw those outside of the Israel as well.  The story moves quickly to the point - Jesus has come to fulfill the law and the way that the law is fulfilled in in the Great Commandment - Love God and Love your neighbor as yourself.