Five Facts about the Gospels (You Might Not Hear in a Pew)

In the cottage industry of online content about the Bible, a distinction is often made between what is taught in Church and the insights of scholarship. This or that academic claims to reveal what your pastor didn’t (or didn’t want you) to know…

I am not particularly bothered by this distinction. Personally, I feel that what happens in a pulpit is naturally different to a lecture. To put it crudely, a lecture is for information; the pulpit for transformation. (I don’t go to Church to improve my Greek.)

Given that the priest and the lecturer are attempting to do different things, however, it can be easy for Churchgoers to pick up ideas about the Gospels which are not well-informed by biblical scholarship – or, at least, not by mainstream ideas. This is especially the case in settings where academic theology is perceived as a threat.

In a brief attempt to restore the balance, then, I look here at five ‘facts’ which may surprise the average Church-goer. They present a challenge to popular ideas we have about the Gospels – some of which we have inherited from the ancient Church. But they are facts which I believe will ultimately help us to read the Gospels better.

It is important to note, moreover, that these facts are held by scholars from across the theological spectrum. So, while they are not often heard from the pulpit, scholars do not find them to be the theological cause for concern some understand them to be. They may be consigned currently to the ivory tower, but they need not stay there.

1. The Gospels are Anonymous

The first fact is perhaps the most surprising, namely that the titles of the Gospels - ‘The Gospel according to X’ - were almost certainly not original to the Gospels.

The reason for this is simple. It is not until the late second century that we have clear evidence that the Gospels were called by their current titles. Prior to this time, the Gospels appear to have circulated anonymously. Christians were quoting from these books, but not by the names we know them with today.