ABSTRACT
First Published in 2015. The gospels tell a story. There are many types of story ranging from fiction through biographies to attempts at historical accounts. Even so-called 'true' stories will be affected by the perception of the writer. It is impossible to present any book without taking the viewpoint of the author into account - which is one reason why this book will be devoting considerable time to understanding the purpose and intention of the individual gospel writers. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John present different accounts of the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth, as one might expect from four people who, although they use some common material, nevertheless present this material in distinctive ways. This book will be concerned with helping you, the reader, to understand the gospel stories and how they came to be written; to bring to light the implicit references that were being made of which modern readers may be unaware; and also to consider the issue of the truth of the stories.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part 1|10 pages
Introduction
chapter 1|8 pages
Two Stories
part 2|67 pages
The Individual Gospels
chapter 2|8 pages
The Core Ideas in the Gospels
chapter 3|17 pages
The Gospel Story of Matthew
chapter 4|10 pages
The Gospel Story of Mark
chapter 5|12 pages
The Gospel Story of Luke
chapter 6|18 pages
The Gospel Story of John
part 3|69 pages
Background and Analytic Tools
chapter 7|7 pages
Analysing the Gospel Books
chapter 8|16 pages
The Search for the Historical Jesus
chapter 9|7 pages
The Four and Forty Gospels
chapter 10|19 pages
Dissecting the Evidence
chapter 11|10 pages
The Synoptic Tradition
chapter 12|8 pages
The Johannine Tradition
part 4|37 pages
Some Themes
chapter 13|10 pages
The Miracle Stories
chapter 14|9 pages
The Parables of Jesus
chapter 15|9 pages
Women in the Gospels
chapter 16|7 pages
Jesus, Community and Church
part 5|44 pages
The Question of Truth