THE GOSPEL AND THE GOSPELS: CHRISTIAN PROCLAMATION AND EARLY JESUS BOOKS, by Simon Gathercole

A Brief Book Summary from Books At a Glance

by Benjamin J. Montoya, PhD

 

About the Author

Simon Gathercole is professor of New Testament and early Christianity at the University of Cambridge, where he is also the director of studies in theology at Fitzwilliam College. 

 

Introduction  

What separates the Gospels in the NT from all the other Gospels excluded from the canon? That is not a simple question; there are all kinds of books written to answer that very large question. This book seeks to answer this question by arguing for their place in the NT canon against others on the basis of their theological content and their shared based on the preached gospel, or kerygma. Gathercole, slightly borrowing from Martin Hengel’s title, The Four Gospels and the One Gospel of Jesus Christ, seeks to answer this question from a different approach, but his approach certainly provides a unique contribution to Gospel studies. Consider our summary to learn more!

 

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part One  Topics of Comparison
Chapter 1  The Comparanda
Chapter 2  The Comparator
Chapter 3  Justifying the Kerygma as a Comparator

Part Two  Description
Chapter 4  The Gospel of Mark
Chapter 5  The Gospel of Matthew
Chapter 6  The Gospel of Luke
Chapter 7  The Gospel of John
Chapter 8  The Gospel of Peter
Chapter 9  Marcion’s Gospel
Chapter 10  The Gospel of Thomas
Chapter 11  The Gospel of Truth
Chapter 12  The Gospel of Philip
Chapter 13  The Gospel of Judas
Chapter 14  The Coptic Gospel of the Egyptians

Part Three  Comparison and Conclusion
Chapter 15  A Comparison of Early Christian Gospels (Thesis 1)
Chapter 16  The Reception of the Kerygma in Early Christian Gospels (Thesis 2)

 

Editor’s Note: there are dozens of excurses throughout the book on various important topics, several of which can and will lead to further research and publication, that is definitely worth reading though could not be covered here in the summary.

 

Summary

 

Part One: Topics of Comparison

Chapter 1: The Comparanda

Before we can dive deeper into the larger question this book seeks to answer, the first task is to lay out what the literature for review will be to be compared, or the comparanda, as the author puts it. The Gospels included in this book are as follows:

• Matthew
• Mark
• Luke
• John
• Gospel of Peter
• Marcion’s Gospel
• Gospel of Thomas
• Gospel of Truth
• Coptic Gospel of Philip
• Gospel of Judas
• Coptic Gospel of the Egyptians

A critical reader of this book will no doubt quickly wonder why other Gospels were not included. There are several criteria used to select this list:

1. The date of their writing
2. The Title “Gospel”
3. Family Resemblance both in form and content
4. Subject Matter
5. Preservation, having a substantial amount present to compare with something else

Although there is disagreement on the dating of perhaps all of these Gospels (canonical and non-canonical), there is sufficient enough sample to represent a larger category of the early Christian Gospels. . . .

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