The Evangelists

The Four Evangelists - Jacob Jordaens

The Gospel is the part of the Bible that recounts the life of Jesus, from his Incarnation to his Resurrection. It is composed of four convergent narratives whose authors, inspired by the Holy Spirit, transmitted the Word of God.    

Of the four evangelists, two are direct witnesses, Matthew and John, and two are indirect witnesses, Mark and Luke. No other gospel can be proclaimed that differs from the revealed Gospel.

The Figure of the Evangelists Illuminated by Maria Valtorta

Matthew

Contrary to commonly accepted opinion, his Gospel aims to prove that Jesus is the Messiah and to present his teaching in great discourses. This Gospel has none of the picturesque or spontaneous qualities that can be found, for example, in the Gospel of Mark.

Three qualities destined Matthew for his future role as evangelist: his memory, his eloquence, and his culture.

1. His memory:

   "My memory is good, I exercised it at my excise-desk and I will remember foreverybody. When you wish, I will be able to repeat everything to you. I did not even keep notes at Capernaum, and yet…"

            
2. His eloquence guaranteeing a certain style:

   "He makes use of his old skill at the customs bench to fleece people and compel them to say: 'You are right'" says Simon Peter about him.

3. Cultured, he directly notes the discourses of Jesus, something certainly not all the other apostles could do. Maria Valtorta alludes to this in one scene.  

He is the first to have recorded his Gospel.

"But in due course I will show you how to distribute the episodes of the three years of my public life. The order of the Gospels is good, but not perfect as a chronological order. A diligent observer notices that. He who could have given the exact order of events, having been with Me from the beginning of the Evangelization to My Ascension, did not do so, because John, a true son of the Light, devoted himself to and worried about making the Light shine brightly through its appearance of a Body in the eyes of the heretics, who contested the truth of the Divinity enclosed in a human body. John’s sublime Gospel achieved its supernatural purpose, but the chronology of My public life has not been improved by it. The other three evangelists show resemblances to one another with regards to events, but they alter their order with regards to time, because only one of the three was present at almost all My public life: Matthew, and he wrote it only fifteen years later, whilst the others wrote theirs even later after hearing the story from My Mother, from Peter, from other apostles and disciples."

Here we can see the "Q source" (from German Quelle meaning source), now lost. It contained the "logia" or sayings of Jesus and would have served as a source to the evangelists.          

According to Maria Valtorta, besides Matthew, the words of Jesus were noted by John of Endor for the period when he followed the Master. These notes were entrusted to Marjiam, the adoptive son of Peter.

Mark

This gospel is said to be close to Peter, the patron fisherman of Galilee. It contains fewer discourses, simpler or even rougher, but also more vivid and spontaneous.

This fits well several traits of Peter’s temperament. But one can also see the imprint of the work of John of Endor. This repentant, cultured man took notes every evening for the time he followed Jesus. These notes were intended for the young Marjiam, Peter's adoptive son. Under the name Martial, Marjiam followed Peter to Rome.    

Regarding Mark’s personality itself, the question remains: is he not the son of Jonas (John), the guardian of Gethsemane?

Luke

He is, of all the evangelists, the one who made a profound investigative and historical writing effort. Some events he reports could only be known from the very mouth of Mary.    

This is not the only source on the life of the Christ: Jesus himself recounts to his apostles certain episodes, like his temptation in the desert.  

The shepherds of the Nativity recount their memories, on their side.

"Yes, and I can repeat them for you. Because what She told us, during the months we could listen to Her, is written here (and he strikes his chest)" recalls Benjamin, one of the shepherds of the Nativity."

John

What separates this Gospel from the other three, called "synoptic" due to their concordance, is the more intimate penetration of the mystery of the Christ. Its author, John, is also served a powerful metaphysical and dramatic genius.        

The spiritual closeness of the apostle with Jesus and the fact that he witnessed all the events (he is the only apostle in this case) allow him to tell, intimately, facts and gestures that others could not convey.        

His Hebrew training as well as his love for Jesus develop in him a perfect memory. He is capable of reproducing from memory, word for word, the complete teachings of Jesus.      

In Maria Valtorta’s work, Jesus speaks about the Gospel of John and more generally about the role of the Gospels:

"[...] you that you will serve Me until my new advent, the final one. Many things will dry up before the last times, just as rivers dry up, and from blue wholesome flowing water-courses they become dusty mould and arid stones. But you will still be a river resounding my word and reflecting my light."

The Evangelists in Other Works of Maria Valtorta

Notebooks 1943

June 28 :

"Now I will explain to you two points in the Gospel. One is from Matthew, and one, from Luke. In reality, they are a single parable, but it is expressed with a few differences. It should not cause astonishment that these differences are found in my evangelists. When they wrote those pages, they were still men-already chosen, but not yet glorified. They could thus commit oversights and errors, in form, but not in substance. Only in the glory of God is there no longer error. But to reach it they still had to struggle and suffer a lot. Only one of the evangelists is phonographically exact in reporting what I said. But he was the pure and loving one [John]."

Notebooks 1945-1950

September 30, 1947:

"My words, moreover, in the versions of the Evangelists, just two of whom were Apostles‑and if one observes closely, they are the two Gospels most clearly mirroring Me, for Luke's, good stylistically, may be better termed the Gospel of my Mother and my Childhood, abundantly narrating details in relation thereto which the others do not narrate, rather than the Gospel of my public life, being more an echo of the others than a new light, as is that of John, the perfect Evangelist of the Light who is Christ the God‑Man‑the versions, I was saying, of my words were greatly reduced by the Evangelists, to the point of being diminished to a skeleton‑more an allusion than a version. A fact which deprives them of the stylistic form which I had given them. The Teacher is in Matthew (see the Sermon on the Mount, the instructions for the Apostles, the praise of the Baptist and the rest of this chapter, the first episode in Chapter 15 and the heavenly sign, divorce in Chapter 19, and three other chapters: 22, 23, and 24). The Teacher is in the luminous Gospel of John, above all, the Apostle in love, fused in charity with his Christ the Light. Compare what this Gospel reveals about the power of Christ the Orator to what is displayed in this regard by the essential scantiness of Mark's Gospel‑precise in the episodes he had heard from Peter, but reduced to a minimum‑and you will see whether I, the Word, used only a very humble style or whether the power of the Perfect Word did not often flash forth in Me. Yes, it shines out in John, even though greatly reduced to a few episodes."

August 15, 1949:

"Only my Mother knew everything about Me, as regards my time as a Son in Nazareth, as a the Master and Redeemer, and as the glorious Risen One. [...] The Evangelists and Apostles partially knew about this or that aspect of MY life. And they did not know much‑very little about my Mother.

"But you, my little Mary, my little John, you alone know all about Me and Mary. You have lived through our lives, at our side. You have breathed the air of our house, of the house of Joachim and then of Mary, of our Nazareth, of our whole Palestine. You have sniffed the smell of bread just baked by Mary, of the linen washed by Her, of her virginal body and mine. You have smelled the scent of Mary Magdalene's balms and of Lazarus's putrescence and of the lamb and wine at the Paschal Supper and of my Blood shed in the Passion. You have counted our sighs and voices and looks, acts, lessons, and miracles.

"You know more than the great John. O my worshipping crucified one, this is what I wanted to give you by virtue of your long suffering: perfect, complete knowledge of Us, as Saints and Doctors did not possess it."

Commentaries on the Apocalypse

"And since Infinite Mercy, taking pity on distressed men over whelmed by the storm of blood, fire, persecution, and death, will have Mary, the pure Star of the Sea, shine upon the sea of blood and horror, and She will be the forerunner of Christ in his final coming, these new evangelizers will bear the Gospel of Mary, who was truly left in the shadow by all the Evangelists and Apostles, and Disciples, whereas vaster knowledge of Her would have instructed many, preventing many falls. For She is the Co‑Redemptrix and Teacher. The Teacher of pure, humble, faithful, prudent, and devout life in her home and among the people of her time. She is always a Teacher, down through the centuries, worthy to be all the better known, the more the world sinks towards the mire and darkness, so as to be all the more imitated in order to lead the world back to what is not darkness and mire."

[...]

Out of pity for these poor men swept away by the storm (of the last times) of blood, fire, persecution, and death, the infinite Mercy will make shine on this sea of blood and horror the pure morning Star, Mary, who will be the herald of the last coming of Christ. It follows that the new evangelizers will teach the Gospel of Mary, too often overshadowed by the evangelists, the apostles and all the disciples, even though a broader knowledge of her would have served as teaching to many people, thus avoiding numerous falls. She is, indeed, [[Virgin Mary#Marie Co-rédemptrice[69]|a co-Redemptrix]] and plays the role of master: a pure life master, faithful, prudent, compassionate, and pious, both at home and among the men of her time. She has constantly taught through the centuries and is worthy to be better known as the world sinks into mud and darkness, in order to be more imitated to bring the world back towards what is detached from it.

[...]

But if the ancient Prophets saw only the God‑Man, some others saw the God‑Man borne upon his throne by his principal confessors, the four Evangelists, with an appearance symbolizing their spiritual nature: Matthew, as a man, completely human in his past and in describing the Son of Man; Mark, as a lion, in preaching Christ among the pagans, even more than in describing the time of Christ in his Gospel, in which, however, as a lion, he loved to bring out the figure of the Divine Miracle Worker more than that of the Messiah as a Man, as Matthew had done. And this was for the purpose of causing amazement and winning the pagans over through astonishment, as they were always seduced by what appeared to be wondrous.

Luke, patient and strong as an ox in completing‑also with persevering investigation of the events leading up to the real apostolic activity of Christ and his followers‑the full work of God for the salvation of humanity. For this work of infinite love began with the Immaculate Conception of Mary, with the fullness of Grace granted to Her, with Mary's continuous communion with her Lord, who, after creating Her, as a Father, with unique perfection among all the bodies of those born to man and woman, as his most beloved Daughter, then filled Her with his Light, the Word [...]

And it may well be said that those who want to know Mary, who was revealed too little by the Evangelists and in the Acts of the Apostles, should look at her Son, who from Her, and from Her alone, took everything, except his Divine Nature as the Firstborn and Only‑Begotten Son of the Father. [...]

John, the fourth Evangelist, is the Eagle. High, powerful, and solitary flight and the ability to look fixedly at the sun are proper to the eagle. In John the Evangelist there is the nobility of the noble bird, powerful flight, and the capacity to gaze fixedly at the Divine Sun‑Jesus, the Light of the world, the Light of Heaven, the Light of God, Infinite Splendor‑the ability to rise up to supernatural heights to which no other evangelist rose and, in this way, by rising up, to be able to penetrate the mystery and truth and doctrine‑everything‑of the Man who was God.

Soaring like a royal eagle quite high above earthly things and humanity, he saw Christ in his true Nature as the Word of God. More than the Miracle Worker and the Martyr, John presents us with "the Teacher." The only most perfect Teacher the world has ever had. The God‑Teacher, Wisdom become flesh and the oral teacher for men, the Verbum or Word of the Father‑that is, the Word making his Father's thoughts perceptible for men, the Light come to illuminate the darkness and make the twilight flee.

The most sublime truths, the gentlest and best loved, are all sincerely stated in the Gospel of John, who with his eagle eye and spiritual ascent while following the spirit of the Master, from on high saw the supreme heights and the supreme depths and measured the breadth of Christ's love and the hatred of the Jewish world towards Christ; the struggle between light and darkness, of the excessive forms of "darkness "‑that is, the excessive number of enemies of his Master, among whom there was even a disciple and apostle, whom John, in this Gospel of his of Truth and Light, clearly calls by his real name, one of his real names: "thief"; he saw the undercover plots, the subtle traps used to make Christ un popular with the Roman dominators and Jews and the "least ones" who formed the flock of those faithful to Christ. And he notes them all and makes them known, showing Christ in his sublime holiness, not just as God, but also as man. [...]

No one knew Christ intimately as John did. All the perfections of Christ were known to him. He penetrated into his mystery and into the ocean of his virtues, truly measuring the height, breadth, and depth of this living Temple not made by human hands that men were trying to destroy in vain. And, after decades had transpired, he wrote about them all and described them, leaving the most perfect Gospel in historical veracity, the most powerful in doctrine, the most luminous in terms of wisdom and charity, and the most faithful in describing episodes and characters, capable of overcoming the mental restrictions of the Jews and describing even what the other evangelists had not dared to say: the Samaritan woman, the royal official, the scandal and flight and rebellion of the disciples against the Master after the discourse on the Bread of Heaven, and the' adulterous woman, and the open disputes with Jews, Pharisees, Scribes, and Doctors, and his taking refuge in Samaria and Ephraim, and his contacts with the Gentiles, and the truth about Judas, "who was a thief," and many other things.

More than mature in years, because he was advanced in age when he wrote his Gospel, but perennially young because he was pure, but always equally and ardently loving towards Christ, for no other human love had diverted the flames of his charity from the Beloved, John, the loving eagle of Christ, has revealed Christ to us with a power superior to every other, inferior only to that of Christ Himself, which was infinite, since it was the power of God, in revealing his Father to us. [...]

On the mystical ladder of the evangelists Matthew may be placed on the first rung, Mark a quarter of the way up, Luke halfway up, and John at the top. [...]

Each of the four served to compose the mosaic giving us the true Jesus Christ, God‑Man, Savior, Master, Redeemer, Victor over death and the devil, Eternal Judge, and King of kings forever. For this reason, in the theophany described by the Apostle John in his Apocalypse (4:5‑9), the four, with their four different appearances, serve as the base and crown for the Throne on which there is seated the One who is, was, and will be, who is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end of all that was, is, and will be, and their voices, joined to those of the twenty‑four‑that is, of the twelve main patriarchs and the twelve greatest prophets, or major prophets‑sing eternal praise to Him who is Most Holy and Omnipotent."

Osty Bible: Presentation of the Four Gospels

Very early on, fragments more or less important of Peter’s catechesis were written in Aramaic, then in Greek. Then appeared the first gospel attempts to which Saint Luke alludes in his Prologue. Finally, concerned to preserve apostolic message pure and responding to the desire of the various Christian communities, Saint Matthew, Saint Mark, and Saint Luke wrote their gospel between 50 and 80.

The Gospel According to Saint Matthew

Saint Matthew, a tax collector turned Apostle, wrote his gospel probably before 60, perhaps even about the year 50, for converted Jews of Palestine. Being an eyewitness, he used the Jerusalem catechesis of Peter, so authoritative. He added his own memories as well as written or oral information, mainly about the words of Jesus, which he gathered from the communities of Palestine. Matthew wrote in Aramaic, but his gospel was interpreted in Greek based on the text of Mark between 70 and 80, and that is the only text we have.    

The Gospel According to Saint Mark

Saint Mark, like Saint Matthew, was of Jewish origin. We know his mother owned a house in Jerusalem where Peter, miraculously freed from prison, took refuge. Companion of Paul during his first major apostolic journey, he became his collaborator again after a brief separation. But he seems above all to have been in the sphere of Peter, who called him "his son" , perhaps because he converted and baptized him. It was he whom the Christians in Rome, mostly from paganism, asked to put Peter’s catechesis into writing. Saint Mark wrote his gospel in Greek around the year 65.

The Gospel According to Saint Luke

Saint Luke, the "Beloved physician" and friend of Paul, whom he accompanied on his last missionary journey and especially during the captivity in Caesarea and the journey from Caesarea to Rome, wrote his gospel after the two other synoptics. Born in Antioch and of Hellenic culture, he intended to introduce Christianity into literature and history. He probably wrote around 80, perhaps in Rome, for converted pagans.      

The Gospel According to Saint John

The fourth gospel constitutes an absolutely independent unit. Saint John did not believe himself bound by the type of catechesis initiated by Saint Peter. Apostle and eyewitness, he used his freedom. He broke with the fourfold plan, and one will see, in the particular introduction dedicated to this gospel, the chronological, narrative, and spiritual differences that characterize this work compared to the synoptics. The Gospel according to Saint John was written toward the end of the first century.

Excerpts from "The Life of Mary According to the Revelations of the Mystics"

It is normal that in matters of faith and even revelation, there are differences. This is the case with the Gospel itself. It is the Word of God for the Church. Therefore, God is the irrevocable author, but it is nonetheless the work of a human writer, an instrument of God, who retains his freedom, personality, character, own education, tendencies, stylistic qualities or deficiencies, for he is a living instrument and not a pen or pencil. He is the human author, therefore free. And God used him from within to give form to his Word. It is less about interaction than coaction, for the Creator is the internal and conjoint cause of all the rest.

At the natural level, as at the supernatural level, in all human action, everything is from God, the first cause, and everything is good from man, the second cause, from whom God creates authentic freedom.

This point is, philosophically and theologically, essential.

The four gospels are very different in episode choice: 111 pericopes out of 373 are unique to a single Gospel (4 in Mark, 30 in Matthew, 36 in Luke, 41 in John), the other 262 being common sometimes to 3, sometimes to two evangelists. The two childhood Gospels (Matthew 1–2 and Luke 1–2) do not share a single episode: not even the birth of Jesus which Matthew does not even narrate in summary. He only says, in the past tense: "Jesus having been begotten in Bethlehem, magi came." He says begotten, not born.

Many exegetes start from their "contradictions," but there are none - neither historical nor theological - and remarkable is their agreement on these two levels, as shown precisely by "The Authentic Life of Jesus" and "The Gospels of Christmas": concordantia discordantium (concordance of discordances: convergence of apparent oppositions) was already noted in the Middle ages.

Offering a general overview of a whole. (Example: a synoptic table). In the Catholic context, often refers to one of the first three Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) because of their common framework.

Name given to characters of the Old Testament who had a long life and numerous descendants: Ex: Abraham. By extension: Elderly man having great authority over his people and inspiring deep respect.

In the Catholic context, usually refers to the first three Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) because of their common framework. Broader definition: those offering a general overview of a whole. (Example: a synoptic table).

People who analyze the historical, cultural, and literary context of Biblical texts to better understand what they meant at the time they were written and how they can be interpreted today.

In-depth research on God, faith, religious Doctrine.