The Gospels

In Matthew an angel tells Joseph that Mary's child is from the Holy Spirit, magi worship the child at Bethlehem, and the family flees to Egypt from Herod. John the Baptist preaches in the wilderness, Jesus is baptized and tempted, and he begins preaching in Galilee. Five discourses stand in the story, beginning with the Sermon on the Mount in chapters 5 to 7.

Jesus heals, sends out the Twelve and teaches in parables. At Caesarea Philippi Peter confesses him as the Christ, and Jesus foretells his death three times. He enters Jerusalem on a colt, pronounces woes on the scribes and Pharisees and speaks on the Mount of Olives of the end of the age. He is betrayed, tried and crucified. The book ends with the risen Jesus on a mountain in Galilee, sending his disciples to make disciples of all nations.

Mark moves at once from the forty days of temptation to Galilee. Jesus calls fishermen by the sea, drives out demons and heals the sick at Capernaum, and the leaders soon plot against him. He teaches in parables, calms the storm, raises the daughter of Jairus and feeds five thousand and then four thousand.

At Caesarea Philippi Peter names him the Christ, and from there Jesus teaches that the Son of Man must suffer, die and rise. He enters Jerusalem, clears the temple and answers his questioners there. In chapters 14 and 15 he is anointed, betrayed, tried and crucified, and a centurion calls him the Son of God. In chapter 16 the women find the tomb empty and hear that he has risen. The manuscripts carry two endings, one closing at verse 8 and a longer one running to verse 20.

In Luke, Jesus is born in Bethlehem under the decree of Augustus, shepherds come to the manger, and at twelve he stays behind in the temple. John preaches in the fifteenth year of Tiberius, and Luke traces the genealogy of Jesus back to Adam. In the synagogue at Nazareth Jesus reads from Isaiah 61, and in Galilee he heals, teaches and chooses the Twelve.

At Luke 9:51 he sets his face toward Jerusalem, and on the long road there he tells parables found only in Luke, among them the good Samaritan, the lost son, and the rich man and Lazarus. He calls Zacchaeus at Jericho, enters Jerusalem and weeps over the city. He is tried before Pilate and Herod and crucified. On the road to Emmaus the risen Lord opens the Scriptures, and the book ends with his ascension from Bethany.

In the fourth Gospel John the Baptist points to Jesus as the Lamb of God, and the first disciples follow him. At a wedding in Cana Jesus turns water into wine, the first of the book's signs. Nicodemus comes to him by night and a Samaritan woman meets him at a well. The signs and the talks that follow them run through the feasts at Jerusalem, and Jesus names himself the bread of life, the light of the world and the good shepherd.

In chapter 11 he raises Lazarus, and the leaders then plan his death. In the upper room he washes his disciples' feet, promises the Spirit and prays for all who will believe. He is arrested, tried before Pilate and crucified. Mary Magdalene meets him risen and Thomas confesses him as Lord and God. The book ends by the Sea of Tiberias, where Jesus restores Peter.