Mark 1.1,
Matthew 1.1,
Luke 1.1-4,
John 1.1-18.
Let’s start with the introductions to
Obviously there are differences in their intros. Mark starts abruptly, and in the very next verse gets straight away to John the Baptist, who leads into the story of Jesus. Matthew refers to the genesis of Jesus: His ancestry and birth. From here we go to a big list of who begat whom, stretching all the way back to Abraham.
Mark 1.1 KWL 1 The start of the gospel of Christ Jesus, {son of God}.Luke 1.1-4 KWL 1 Because many attempt to compose a narrative- about the things which were fulfilled in our religion,
2 just as the first eyewitnesses handed things down to us- and became servants of the word,
3 I also think,- having closely, accurately followed everything from the start—
- I write you¹, honorable Theófilus,
4 so you¹ might know about what you¹ were taught.- An accurate word.
Matthew 1.1 KWL 1 The book of the genesis of Christ Jesus,- bar David, bar Abraham.
Unlike the others, the author of Luke (whom we’ll assume it’s actually St. Luke, same as the other traditional authors; why not?) explained to his recipient exactly why he wrote his gospel. Others have done gospels, but Luke did an extra-thorough job to research the truth and present something accurate we can base our religion upon. So here’s the real history of Christ Jesus. Theófilus might be the recipient’s actual name, but in those no-freedom-of-religion days there’s just as much a chance it’s an alias:
John tends to go its own way, so its introduction is a bit longer and more theological.
John 1.1-18 KWL 1 In the beginning is the word.- The word’s with God,
- and the word is God.
2 This word is in the beginning with God.3 Everything comes to be through the word,- and not one thing, nothing, comes to be without him.
4 What came to be though the word, is life.- Life’s the light of humanity.
5 Light shines in darkness,- and darkness can’t get hold of it.
6 A person came who’d been sent by God;- his name is John.
7 This person came as a witness,- so he might witness about the light,
- so through him, everyone might believe.
8 This person isn’t the light,- but he came so he might witness about the light.
9 The actual light, who lights up every person,- is coming into the world.
10 He’s in the world,- and the world comes to be through him,
- and the world doesn’t know him.
11 He comes to his own people,- and his own people don’t accept him.
12 Whichever of them do accept him,- he gives to them, to those who believe in his name,
- the power to become God’s children.
13 These people aren’t children by blood,- nor by carnal desire, nor by a man’s desire,
- but are begotten by God.
14 The word becomes flesh and encamps with us,- and we get a good look at his significance—
- significance like we’d see in the only begotten son of a father,
- full of grace and truth.
15 John witnesses about the word,- and has called out, saying,
- “This is the one of whom I say,
- ‘The one coming after me has got in front of me,’
- because he’s before me.”
16 For all of us receive things out of the word’s fullness.- Grace after grace:
17 The Law, which Moses gave;- grace and truth, which Christ Jesus comes to be.
18 Nobody’s ever seen God.- The only Son, God who’s in the Father’s womb
- this one explains God.
It’s deep, so I’ll analyze John’s intro in more detail
3-D Jesus.
Your average Christian, and definitely your average pagan, doesn’t read the bible.
When people do bother to read it, they tend to only stick to favorite passages. Consequently people are only familiar with favorites. I admit, I do the same thing. The more you read TXAB, the more you’re gonna notice how I tend to quote certain passages a lot more often than others. Not that I’m not digging around the whole of the bible, but I’ve got my favorites, so when I want to prove a point, it’s easier to quote a verse I memorized years ago, than look up a less-familiar one. We all do it.
But being favorite-focused means we’re not as aware of the bigger picture. Or even know there is a bigger picture. We aren’t aware of God’s complexity. We pay lip service to the idea of God much greater, much bigger, much wiser, much deeper; but we keep acting like we’re a close second. We don’t notice the bible contains multiple accounts of God, multiple points of view of what he’s like. We only zero in on one viewpoint. Mainly Paul’s, or John’s, or Moses’s, or the author of Samuel, or the psalmists. Or our own, which we’ve developed, wrote a book about,
This is where Christians get the idea—and preach it, and claim anyone who teaches otherwise is a heretic—that the bible has no contradictions. That everything in the bible lines up perfectly. That any “seeming” discrepancies aren’t really; there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for all of them. That the bible only gives one worldview. And that Christians are only permitted one worldview… so everybody with different politics, in different denominations, isn’t just wrong, but not even Christian, and probably going to hell.
We reduce God to two dimensions. And he doesn’t even fit in 11.
Yes, 11 dimensions. According to scientists’ M-theory, that’s how many dimensions there are. (In string theory, only 10.) Length, width, depth, duration, and seven further dimensions of possibility, which they discovered mathematically, and it helps makes sense of what they’ve scientifically observed. And I realize there are plenty of Christians who think I’m nuts to refer to science, ’cause they don’t believe in it. The worldview they’ve chosen to embrace requires a selectively
This is the very problem I’m talking about here. We’ve gotta stop thinking we know it all.
One of the reasons I’m gonna compare multiple gospels as I go through Jesus’s teachings, is to make it crystal clear: Yeah, they largely line up. But sometimes they contradict one another. Deliberately: Matthew and Luke both quoted Mark, so they knew Mark’s point of view, yet decided to cast it aside and present their own points of view. Not because Mark was wrong, but because their points of view are just as valid. And according to popular theory, the author of John had read Luke, and actually deigns to expand upon that gospel by including details Luke didn’t have. Again, not because Luke was wrong, but because John’s view is as valid as Luke’s view.
I know: The idea of more than one point of view which don’t line up, yet they’re all valid, makes some people absolutely bonkers. They claim it’s some kind of postmodern reality-denying scheme. Well
By comparing these similarities and differences, by dealing with them instead of denying them, we get a fuller picture of Christ Jesus. One viewing angle only gives us a 2-D image. From two angles we get a 3-D image. From four, it still won’t be a complete image—a full hologram or something. We need the Holy Spirit for that. But it’ll be far more comprehensive than taking two images, claiming, “They line up perfectly!… but let’s just tweak this a little,” and Photoshopping away all the parts which don’t overlap in a way which only seems perfect to us.
We need to learn Jesus, like God (
