Examining Gospel writers
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Mark

The earliest Gospel is that of Mark, written about 60-70 A.D. He was the son of St. Barnabas’s sister

But a close examination of the treatment he gives to his borrowings from Mark shows that he allowed himself great freedom in editing and embroidering his material in the interest of what he regarded as the rightful honouring of the great Master. The same tendencies are often visible elsewhere when he is producing  ‘Q’ or providing matter peculiar to himself. Anything ,therefore, strictly peculiar to ‘Mathew’ can be accepted as  historical only with great caution. (The life of Jesus, C.J. Cadoux , Penguin Books, p 14,15)

MATHEW

Mathew was a tax collector, a minor official who did not travel around with Jesus The Gospel of Mathew was written in Greek at Antioch about 90 C.E. The author made use of at least two lost documents- “Q” and “Urmarcus” . No independent scholar regards this Gospel as the work of Mathew the apostle of Jesus. If Mathew composed anything it must have been only ‘Q’. Regarding the liberties taken by the unknown author of this Gospel with the original material. C.J. Cadoux writes :

But a close examination of the treatment he gives to his borrowings from Mark shows that he allowed himself great freedom in editing and embroidering his material in the interest of what he regarded as the rightful honouring of the great Master. The same tendencies are often visible elsewhere when he is producing  ‘Q’ or providing matter peculiar to himself. Anything ,therefore, strictly peculiar to ‘Mathew’ can be accepted as  historical only with great caution. (The life of Jesus, C.J. Cadoux , Penguin Books, p 14,15)

LUKE

Luke’s Gospel was written much later, and is, in fact, drawn from the same source as Mark’s and Mathew’s. Luke was Paul’s physician, and like Paul, never met Jesus. The third Gospel, the Gospel of Luke, was writing somewhere in Greece about the year 80 C.E. for the benefit of “the most excellent’ Theophilus, probably a high official of the Roman Empire. It was an apologetic addressed to non Jews. The writer, who was the friend and travel companion of St. Paul, made use of the least three lost documents, two of these were identical with those used by the writer of the Mathew’s Gospel and the third was peculiar to himself Luke, who wished to bring his Gospel in line with the Pauline point of view, took even greater liberties with his source that the writer of Mathew’s Gospel had done :

JOHN

John’s Gospel is from a different source, and was written later still in about 100 years A.D. He should not be confused with John, the disciple, who was another man. For two centuries it was hotly debated whether this Gospel should be accepted as a reliable account of the life of Jesus, and should be included in the Scripture. 

The Gospel of Mark , Mathew  and Luke are called ‘the Synoptic Gospels”, because they proceed on the basis of the same lost document and have much in common. The Gospel of John is very different from these, The divinity and pre-existence of Jesus are affirmed in this Gospel alone though never as claim put forward by Jesus himself. In the opening lines the writer of this Gospel makes the claim that the divine Logos, the Word or Reason of God, which created the world, had become incarnate in Jesus. The Gospel of John was written at or near Ephesus between the years 110 and 115 of the Christian ear by some unknown writer who was anti-semitically inclined and represented the Jews as the enemies of Jesus Christ. No independent scholar regards it as the work of John, the son of Zebedee, who, according to R.H. Charles, Alfred Loisy, Robert Eisler, and other scholars, was beheaded by Agrippa I  in the year 44 C.E., long before the Fourth Gospel was written. The modern Biblical scholars doubt  the genuineness not only of the writer’s own views expressed in this Gospel, but also of the words put by him in the mouth of Jesus Christ. C. J. Cadoux writes :

The speeches in the Fourth Gospel (even apart from the early messianic claim) are so different from those in the synoptic, and so like the comments of the Fourth Evangelist himself, that both cannot be equally reliable as records of what Jesus said : Literary veracity in ancient times did not forbid, as it does now, the assignment of fictitious speeches to historical characters : the best ancient historians made  a practice of composing and assigning such speeches in this way. (The life of Jesus, C.J. Cadoux , Penguin Books, p 16)

Eminent Christian Bible scholars view on Gospel writers on  St. John and his Gospel 

1. ' The Twentieth Century New Testament ' says as follows:-

" The writer( St. John ) apparently proposed himself to illustrate the Spirit of the Gospel to love by such incident in the life of Jesus as best suited his purpose. There is no attempt  at a regular connected narration, and the writer allows himself such freedom  in commenting upon the teaching of Jesus that is not always possible to tell where that teaching ends and the writer's comments begin "

2. ' The Encyclopedia Biblica' says as follows :-

" Critical opinion is much divided as to the Fourth Gospel, that which bears the name of John, the Judgment of many critics being that it is the least trustworthy as a source, whether for the words or for the acts of Jesus ".

3. Rev. Dummelow says in his 'Commentary' as Follows :-

" It (St. John's Gospel) is the work of a mystic trained in the allegorical method of interpreting the Scriptures and expecting his own work to be interpreted in a like manner. He sits down to write not a biography but an interpretation of the life of Christ"

Note : These weighty words, which we wish our Christian readers re-read and ponder over, are supported by the dismembered and the contradictory nature of Christ's Prophecy on John's gospel

The New Testament Books (canonical)

The literature on the New Testament books is (of course) huge. Here is their approximate order of composition:

I and II Thessalonians	~50 CE
I and II Corinthians	54-56
Galatians	~56
Romans	56-57
Colossians	~61
Philemon	~61
Philippians	~62
Gospel according to Mark	65-70
Gospel according to Matthew	80-85
Acts and Gospel according to Luke	85-90
Hebrews	85-90
Gospel according to John	90-100
Revelation of John	~95
Ephesians, James, and I Peter	95-100
I, II, and III John	100-110
I and II Timothy and Titus	110-130
Jude, II Peter	130-150

Kings James Version 

In 1525 the New Testament, partially translated by Tindale, was printed in Cologne. During the same year 6,000 copies of the Testament were smuggled into England. By the authority of the church they were publicly burned. The Bible was the first book ever to be banned in England. (2) Driven from town to town William Tindale was eventually strangled in 1536 and his body burned.

Queen Mary, the mother of James I and a devout Catholic, had commanded "that no manners of persons presume to bring into this real any messages., books, paper, etc. in the name of Martin Luther, John Calvin, Miles Coverdale, Erasmus, Tyndale etc. or any like books containing false doctrines against the Catholic faith".

The Puritans complained to King James that the Bible available to them, the Douay version, was corrupt and begged for a new translation. King James complied and in 1611 the first printing was completed.

King James I, at the age of 8, was able to translate aloud chapters of the Bible from Latin to French and then to English. James believed strongly that the Bible should be available to ordinary people, not just the clergy.

At the age of thirteen James fell madly in love with his cousin Esmé Stuart whom he made Duke of Lennox. James deferred to Esmé to the consternation of his ministers. In 1582 James was kidnapped and forced to issue a proclamation against his lover and send him back to France.

Despite his homosexual activities James later fell in love with and married Anne of Denmark with whom he had seven children. He was nicknamed Solomon for his ability to negotiate between the heads of the Catholic and Protestant churches.

1. William Tindale's Impact on the Translation of the King James Bible, by Pathricia Samuels.

1. The Bible Banned, THE FILE ROOM, Muntadas and Randolph Street Gallery.

3. King James I of Scotland and England, by Brian Barrow.

Source : http://www.postfun.com/

 (ICRA) 

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