Four Gospels Comparison

Studying the New Testament Gospels requires one to look in-depth at the similarities and differences among these gospels and use those observations to gain insights into the messages behind them. Kurt Aland’s book Synopsis of the Four Gospels is helpful in this endeavor because it explores the four gospels and their stories into corresponding pericopes. The pericope focused on in this paper is Pericope 59, which dissects Matthew 5:43-48 and Luke 6:27-28, 32-36 and their versions of loving one’s enemies (Aland 55). In Matthew’s version of loving one’s enemies, Jesus quotes Leviticus 19:18 but says that people should love their enemies and “pray for those who persecute [them]” (New Oxford Annotated Bible, Matt. 5:43-44). Jesus explains that God makes the “sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous” (Matt. 5:45). Jesus also makes the point that if one only is kind to others that are kind to them, then they are being no better than tax collectors and Gentiles (Matt. 5:46-47). Finally, Jesus ends with telling his listeners to “[b]e perfect… as your heavenly Father is …show more content…
Matthew and Luke both draw much content of their gospels from Mark. Matthew uses around ninety percent of Mark’s material, however, Luke only uses around half of Mark’s material (Powell 107, 152). Matthew and Luke were also written with better grammar and fluidity than Mark, probably because they were written after Mark (Luke after Matthew) and written by more educated individuals (Powell 108, 150). In addition to Matthew and Luke using Mark as a source, they both use a source that contains the “early collection of Jesus’ sayings,” called the Q source (Powell 107, 151). However, Matthew and Luke both have sections drawn from sources other than Mark or the Q source, these sections are called Special Matthew and Special Luke (Powell 109,