How did the Gospels come to be?

When a biographer wants to tell the world about a special individual that author will do everything in their power to create a character for thr reader to imagine. Not just a person as a description; he had a dark beard, about 6’1”, and had laugh as bright as the sun. the biographer will instead create a different sort of picture involving stories, reactions from followers, phrases, and expressions that give a unique understanding of not just who the person was but what that person was like. The Gospels are no different. They each approach the same man, and tell the story through their own eyes. They will each tell of the same story, but might also tell it just a little different. Just as a group of people might gather around a coffin and tell stories about the deceased, the Gospel Evangelists set out to tell the world of the Jesus they knew, as accurate as possible, and as personal as possible.

Hence we come to the synoptic dilemma. Three Gospels, Matthew Mark and Luke sharing over 600 verses. Plagiarism? Common folk tales? Perhaps a bit of both. Inspired? Yes. Apostolic? Confirmed. There had to be a means of differing between the three though, and after a decade or two late than Matthew, Mark and Luke, John had to be distinguished as well.

The Gospels were written for different purposes for their intended audience but we can also tell that Christianity is the fruit of the Old Testament vine. In order to distinguish between these differing messages and tones, the early Church Fathers used symbolism in the book of the prophet Ezekiel (1:10). The four creatures we find here are also found in the book of Revelation; a post-Pentecost writing. It seemed fitting for the Fathers to use the prophetic figures in order to better communicate the characteristics of the Gospels. Matthew would be the Human Face, Mark would be the Lion, Luke would be the Ox, and John would be the Eagle. Each depicting one and the same being, but with separate features. The order was a jumbled early on thought.

Irenaeus of the second century gives a very early commentary of the use of multiple Gospels in his writing Against Heresies he provides that no one Gospel is perfect and it took four no more no less to tell the whole story. He gives poetical inference to the four corners of the world, four directions, and four covenants of God. He allocates the Ox to Luke, the Human Face to Matthew, the Lion to John, and lastly the Eagle to Mark. This order is known as the “Old Latin”, Matthew, John, Luke, Mark in order of the vision of Ezekiel.

The order we find in our bibles in the 21^st Century is obviously not that of Irenaeus. The Muratorian Canon, a fragment of the second-third Century gives Matthew, Mark, Luke, John in order, and Human, Lion, Ox, Eagle, respectively. This becomes the dominant version.

What’s the message of the Church Fathers though? How did they use this order to better communicate the Gospel? The meaning came from the opening verses in each Gospel. Mark starts with a voice calling out in the wilderness, like that of a Lion. Matthew starts with a genealogy giving reference to the human history of the newborn Jesus.  Luke mentions the priestly office in Zachariah and since the Ox is a dominant icon for sacrifice Luke becomes appropriate. For Jerome, who translates the entire bible into Latin, John is the Author who is “hurrying to the heights born aloft on eagles wings” and names John the eagle who promptly calls out Jesus’ divinity as high as the heavens themselves.

The teaching points were somewhat lost and most of us never learned these aides. We go to our Cathedrals and find depictions of the four creatures and don’t know what they represent. In each we find them clinging to a book or a scroll, a holy text they crafted and display for the world.