And they were bringing children to him, that he might touch them; and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it he was indignant, and said to them, "Let the children come to me, do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands upon them.
Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people; but Jesus said, "Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven." And he laid his hands on them and went away.
Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them; and when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him, saying, "Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it."
Người ta đem những con trẻ đến cùng Ngài, đặng Ngài rờ chúng nó; nhưng môn đồ trách những kẻ đem đến. Đức Chúa Jêsus thấy vậy, bèn giận mà phán cùng môn đồ rằng: Hãy để con trẻ đến cùng ta, đừng cấm chúng nó; vì nước Đức Chúa Trời thuộc về những kẻ giống như con trẻ ấy. Quả thật, ta nói cùng các ngươi, ai chẳng nhận lấy nước Đức Chúa Trời như một đứa trẻ, thì chẳng được vào đó bao giờ. Ngài lại bồng những đứa trẻ ấy, đặt tay trên chúng nó mà chúc phước cho.
Khi ấy, người ta đem các con trẻ đến, đặng Ngài đặt tay trên mình và cầu nguyện cho chúng nó; môn đồ quở trách những người đem đến. Song Đức Chúa Jêsus phán rằng: Hãy để con trẻ đến cùng ta, đừng ngăn trở; vì nước thiên đàng thuộc về những kẻ giống như con trẻ ấy. Ngài bèn đặt tay trên chúng nó, rồi từ đó mà đi.
Người ta cũng đem con trẻ đến cùng Đức Chúa Jêsus, cho được Ngài rờ đến chúng nó. Môn đồ thấy vậy, trách những người đem đến. Nhưng Đức Chúa Jêsus gọi họ mà phán rằng: hãy để con trẻ đến cùng ta, đừng ngăn cấm; vì nước Đức Chúa Trời thuộc về những người giống như con trẻ ấy. Quả thật, ta nói cùng các ngươi, ai không nhận lãnh nước Đức Chúa Trời như một đứa trẻ, thì sẽ không được vào đó.
Have you ever done a research report? When you do a research report you are using other people’s information and adding it together to make your report. The Gospels were the same way also. However, there’s something special about the first three Gospels, they are Synoptic. The word synoptic comes from a Greek word meaning to see or look at things the same way. The Gospels according to Matthew, Mark and Luke are very similar in many ways. They share many of the same sayings of Jesus and stories about Jesus, sometimes with the same words. The Gospel according to John though is very different from the other three, that is why it is not synoptic.
When we write a report, we use different sources of information to write our report. Most scholars agree on the “Two Source Theory” that explains where the Gospel writers got their information from. And with this theory, it explains why these three Gospels are so similar. Mark is the oldest Gospel and is thought to be one source for Matthew and Luke. This would explain why some stories or sayings of Jesus appear in all three Gospels. Next, scholars think that there is a second source that Matthew and Luke used, and they call this the Q source (short for Quelle which means Source in German). The Q source would explain why Matthew and Luke, but not Mark, have some things in common. The relationship between the Synoptic Gospels would look like this:
Mark ----------} Luke {---------- "Q"
Mark ----------} Matthew {---------- "Q"
We don’t know where Mark got his information from, but we believe that Mark wrote his Gospel based on St. Peter’s preaching. St. Peter was one of Jesus’ original 12 apostles. Mark was a disciple of Peter. To clarify, the word apostle means someone who is on a mission, the 12 disciples became apostles when Jesus sent them to preach and heal. A disciple is a follower of a teacher. Jesus had many disciples, but he only had 12 apostles.
With all this information, we must remember that all four writers had one main source, and that was the Holy Spirit sent by God to write the Word of God. The writers probably had more sources, that are unique to their Gospel, but the ones we discussed above explain why the first three Gospels are similar.
Let’s discuss some examples. An example of a Q source, where the story only appears in Luke and Matthew, is The Lord’s Prayer, where Jesus teaches us to say the Our Father prayer. An example of a story that appears in all three, showing that Mark is the source for Luke and Matthew is the Baptism of Jesus. Although John does not use the same sources as the other three, John’s Gospel does have a few similar stories. For example, the only miracle that appears in all four Gospels is the feeding of 5000. This may have occurred simply because the Holy Spirit had him write the same story as the others, or perhaps John heard the story orally, which still fulfilled God’s plan.
Now we know why the first three Gospels are so similar. We must also remember though that they are different in many ways, mostly because they are writing to different audiences and trying to show different sides of Jesus, but they use many of the same stories and parables to do this.
1) When we are writing an essay or report for school, we need to use good reliable sources just like the Gospel writers did. By doing so, we form well-informed papers that people will read and learn from. Because the Gospel writers did a good job at portraying Jesus and His life, they were able to teach others about Jesus and promote the Church; that is why the Catholic religion is so strong today.
There are lots of great resources that show how the Gospels relate to one another. If you can, try checking out this website: http://www.utoronto.ca/religion/synopsis/meta-4g.htm.
This website puts all four Gospels side by side so that you can easily compare them. At the beginning of each story, there are small books that represent another Gospel, if you click on one, the other Gospel will jump to the same story so that you can read them side by side.
By understanding how the Gospels relate to one another, we can better understand the differences. When we look at the same story in all three Gospels, the differences help make the themes in each Gospel stand out to us better. It’s like if everyone wore all black, but then each person got to wear a different hat, or shoes, or scarf to make us each special.
Also, because the Gospels match so well, we know then that the history of Jesus within the Gospels are true because they support one another. You must remember though that each Gospel will have its differences in order to show a different side of Jesus. We should not take these differences literally, if we do, we will end up not believing in Jesus because we would be paying too much attention to the differences rather than the message.
Now we can see why the first three Gospels are so similar, because they shared some of the same sources when writing. There are many different theories out there about how the Gospels were written and why they match, the one we learned about today is the best possible one. But most importantly, we need to remember that it was God, through the Holy Spirit that is the ultimate source for all four Gospels. God wanted us to know about Jesus and His life, and we are very lucky to have all four Gospels to help us.
Dear Lord, help us to understand appreciate the Gospels and not to be confused by their similarities and differences. Help us to recognize the important messages within the Gospels and to learn and live by these messages. Amen.