Prologues
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Mr 1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;
Mark is recording the gospel according to Peter. the gospel records Peter's recollection of the life of Christ shortly after the resurrection. References to scripture are likely from the memory of Jesus teaching either in the upper room or memory correlations with scripture he had learned. There is not a lot of evidence of understanding the deep things of the mystery, but a cursory understanding that what Jesus did was prophesied. This is a relative statement comparing him the the later gospels.
He states that he is starting at the beginning of the gospel and will go on to tell of the preaching of John the Baptist. This is when he became aware of the redemptive mission of Christ, and relies on his memory and looks to scripture to validate his memory.
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Mt 1:1 The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
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Matthew starts his gospel with the answer to his riddle. He will list forty-one generations in the genealogy of Jesus, then say there are forty-two. Where is the last one? The mystery generation are those whom he will call brother, sister and mother. Though Mark has the saying that those who do his will shall be called such, he could not include it as a riddle since he did not yet see that the literal history of Israel was itself a parable and riddle.
Matthew will use the literal history as prophecy and show how Israel acted out the parable of Christ in many ways. This is the book of the spiritual family of Jesus as he lived among them and taught them.
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The theme of Matthews's book is the Kingdom of Heaven. He has chosen this part of the prologue as a callback to Ecclesiastes 1:1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
Compare 'word's of the preacher' with 'book of the generation of Jesus Christ'. Jesus is the Preacher, being the incarnate Word of God. Ecclesiastes contains wisdom of the earthly kingdom and Matthew contains wisdom of the heavenly kingdom adding to the prophetic pattern of Two. David is a type of Christ, and so both books refer to Jesus as king in Jerusalem, though Matthew does so at the end of his book with the sign posted on the cross.
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During the time between Mark's gospel and Matthew's, the Hebrew church has come to realize that their history is a parable of Jesus. This is in fulfillment of what God had told them: De 28:37 And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb [parable], and a byword, among all nations whither the LORD shall lead thee.
As Matthew continues with the genealogy, he establishes four titles of Jesus from the genealogy. Even the record of his kin is a prophetic riddles to which Matthew eludes. He does not write a scholarly work crossing all of his t's and dotting his i's but the messenger delivering the gospel to churches can preach through it, since Hebrew boys were taught the scripture well.
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There are very few teachings in Mark that are not included in Matthew. Effectively Matthew could be seen as Mark (edition 2) with new material added. As we run into these we will discuss plausible reasons from the theme and purpose why they may have been left out. This does not intimate that they are not true, but that at the time of Matthew, they were no longer the focus of teaching within the church.
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Lu 1:1-4 Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, 2 Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word; 3 It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, 4 That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.
Luke declares that he is making a systematic record of the testimony of eyewitnesses to the life of Christ. He had access to both Mark and Matthew, as well as people who were still alive from the time of Christ. There are a few things missing in Luke that are in Matthew. Of particular note are some of the parables. Since both Mark and Matthew were still in circulation, there was no compelling reason to be fastidious in recapitulation. His choice to include material from Matthew and Mark, therefor, has to do with and editorial choice to fit his agenda. Particular differences in the handling of material can be attributed to the more mature proficiency in unpacking riddle.
Notice that Theophilus had been instructed in things not yet contained in scripture. one of Luke's motivations is to validate the oral teaching that was being spread and stave off errors introduced by oral tradition. He is perhaps one of the first 'sola scriptura' proponents.
The church, by this time had begun to play with words as found in the OT. All of the OT names have meaning which is significant to unpacking God's intended meaning. Luke knows that he is writing the third edition of "The Life of Christ" not merely a letter for one man. He uses the man's name to address the larger audience. 'Theophilus' means 'God lover'. He wrote the book for all who love God. Matthew intentionally use word-play when explaining 'Yeshua' and it is inconceivable that Luke would not have recognized it in his use of Theophilus.
Luke has learned from the previous books that a bit of intellectual humility is in order in declaring the beginning of the gospel. Mark identified it at the preaching of John the Baptist; Matthew as the calling of Abraham. Though he now understands that the record of Adam to Abraham is also a parable of Christ, he is content to place the genealogy in a logical flow in the life of Christ, rather than at the beginning of his book.
It may seem undignified to paint the NT authors in a friendly competition in teaching the cool things they have been discovering in scripture. But these are some of the same guys who were in a not-so-friendly competition for a seat next to Christ in the kingdom. They are goaded in friendly theological banter not only by the nature of childish word-play, but by the proverb "iron sharpens iron" making it a good thing to encourage one another to dive deeper in scripture and communicate the mystery better.
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Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John jumps into the book writing business with Mark, Matthew and Luke in front of him. These books are in wide circulation and he sees no reason to merely restate what they have said. His motivation is to capture the latest theological discoveries in the mystery.
He pushes the beginning of the gospel to the very beginning of God's revelation, and later demonstrates the fullness of the plan of God within the alphabet itself, to say that the beginning of the gospel occurred before the beginning.
The doctrine of John's first sentence is derived from the word-play and notarikon of the first three words of Genesis 1:1.
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Mark presents Jesus as the prophet; he fulfills prophecy. Matthew speaks of Jesus as the king of the kingdom of heaven. Luke explains to a largely Greek church that unlike the Roman Ceasars who were men claiming to be gods to be served, Jesus was God who made himself man to serve, as the priest and sacrifice. John declares Jesus to be the creator of all heaven and earth.
