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From ‘Notes on the Formation of the
Gospels’, by John Wijngaards;
published in Background to the
Gospels (Bangalore & Ann Arbor 1981)
and Together in My Name
(London 1991).
The Gospel texts excell the work of human authors, because through
the Gospel God himself speaks to us. We express this by saying that the gospels
have been ‘inspired’. God himself is the author because he moved the
human authors to write down what they wrote. He used the human authors as his
instruments through whom he could express his word to us.
How did God actually do this?
In the case of the gospels we can distinguish the following
stages:
Stage One: Jesus Christ
communicated God’s intentions to the apostles. He taught them by parables
and instructions what they should believe and practise. He showed them by his
deeds what God’s salvation means. Finally he gave them the commission to
preach this salvation everywhere.
Stage Two: After Jesus’ Resurrection and
after receiving the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the apostles fulfilled the
commission Jesus had given them. By their oral preaching, by their example and
their counsels they handed on the apostolic tradition. A large part of this
tradition they had received directly from Jesus. In matters of interpretation
they were assisted by the Holy Spirit so that they could pass on Jesus’
gospel faithfully.
Stage Three: The apostolic preaching was
written down by zealous disciples. What Jesus had said and done was put on
paper. First, collections were made of passages that belonged together. Then
the time came for a complete written expression of Jesus’ message. That is
why the Holy Spirit prompted four writers, the evangelists, to compose a
written account of Jesus’ Gospel. According to Christian tradition those
writers were:
- Matthew, one of the apostles, who composed his version of the
gospel especiaJly with the view of converting his fellow Jews;
- Mark, St. Peter’s assistant and interpreter, who knew so
well the conditions in pagan Rome;
- Luke, a Greek convert and a great missionary who wanted to
bring all people, Jews and non-Jews, to faith in Christ;
- John, the apostle who enjoyed Jesus’special love, and who
desired to complete the other gospels by preserving words and deeds of Jesus
not mentioned in them.
The Holy Spirit was at work in all these stages. He helped the
apostles understand Jesus’ teachings. He guided the early Church in the
faithful expression of apostolic traditions. And he moved and assisted the
evangelists during all their work of writing. The process of inspiration
embraced the formation ot the gospels in all these stages.
We should mark this well: the gospels are not the product of the
four evangelists alone. The gospels are the product of the Church’s
preaching. Some individuals, it is true, had an important hand in giving the
final shape to the gospel editions: that was the special task and achievement
of the evangelists. But what they wrote down was not their own personal
opinion. They were conscious of the fact that they wrote as representatives of
the church community and they drew their information from the Church. ( Read
about all this in: Vatican II, Decree on Revelation, no. 7.)
The various stages of Gospel formation are well expressed in a
document issued by the Vatican commission on Sacred Scripture: ‘On the
historical truth of the Gospels’, Acta Apostolicae Sedis 56 (1964)
pp. 712-718; Catholic Biblical Quarterly 26 (1964) pp. 305-312; see the
commentary by J.A.FITZMYER in Theological Studies 25 (1964) pp. 386-408.
Summarizing we may, therefore, say:
- the gospels are the writings of Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John;
- the gospels contain the apostolic teaching of the early
Christian community;
- the gospels express Jesus’ words and deeds;
- the gospels are the Word of God, - of God who through the
apostolic preaching and through the writings of the evangelists speaks to
me.
John Wijngaards |
