The actual course is divided into six main sections, titled Part I to VI. Each consist of some introductory pages, but the actual studying is carried out in the Bible. For example, this is “Part I” and concerns the Gospels and so it must be followed by the studying of the same. We can read the Gospels, or listen to them on audio, but it is essential that we immerse ourselves in these for a while. For whatever time that will take, it is best to refrain from going elsewhere in the Bible. I recommend the gospels of John and Matthew, as a start, as Mark and Luke are fairly similar to Matthew and can be read later.
Why start at the Gospels? Simply because in them we hear what Jesus himself taught, how he lived and what he did. Eventually we will move on to other things, but the Gospels will remain our foundation and the criterion for judging what will come later. While studying the Gospels, we will also come across some apparent contradictions and things that are hard to understand. We will eventually be able to resolve these as well, by either looking back to the Old Testament, or forward to the epistles. For the time being, however, we will stick to the Gospels and leave some of these questions for later. If we don’t first give priority to the words and works of Jesus Himself, we risk confusing Christianity with something else and create just one more syncretism, like so many before. This is why we must proceed step by step, laying first the foundation, and then building the rest of the house.
How to read the Gospels
The accounts of any event, however true and accurate they might be, always involve a measure of subjectivity and personal interpretation. The Gospels, moreover, speak of things that happened two thousand years ago. They were written in ancient languages and were geared to different people and cultures, which accounts for some of their differences in style, emphasis and content. Upon hearing this, some will perhaps doubt their reliability and wonder how much we can really trust them. The answer is simple – VERY MUCH! - and here is the reason why.
There are four evangelists and four Gospels, therefore, four points of view. If four different people see the same event unfolding before them, when they describe it, obviously, it will be from four different points of view. The event was the same but the accounts will be different. Some will emphasize those aspects that seemed most important to them, while others might barely mention them, or ignore them altogether. This diversity of emphasis, perspectives and narrative, however, does not at all weaken the reliability of the story. As a matter of fact it increases it. Why? Because if we had only one eyewitness, we would not so easily recognize the subjective elements of his story. We could not so easily separate his intention, opinion, or simple writing style from the events and the person portrayed in his account, which in our case is Jesus. The comparing of the accounts, allows us to see that indeed the events occurred, that the writers were either eyewitnesses or writing fro those who were, and even from their differences we gain further insight. In fact, the four stories, from four different perspectives, give us the opportunity to triangulate, so to speak, which allows depth of field and creates a three-dimensional image of Jesus, instead of just a flat one. There are more reason why the four Gospels can be trusted, but the ones I listed are those that account for the fairly accurate picture of Jesus which we received, even at such a time distance.
The personal experience factor
As I mentioned earlier, it all starts with a meeting that allows us to "try" Jesus, to personally experience that He is exactly what he claimed to be. Now we are studying the Gospels because we wish to know Him better and therefore deepen our relationship with him. Learning what He was like, will allows us to know what He is. Reading the Gospels is the most available and effective way of acquiring that knowledge, but it has some limits. Because the Gospels are written in human languages, they are therefore also limited by the same. Thankfully, our understanding of Jesus transcends those limits because He also communicates with us also by other means. The Gospel of John does, in fact, begin with these words "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and without Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being. And the Word became flesh, and dwelled among us. And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father [1]. By this we see that Jesus is referred to as the “Logos”, translated as “Word” and that he is that part of God that creates and communicates. To this end He does also employ human languages and the printed page, but He alone is the eternal "Living Word" and not everything we read, not even in the Bible, can be considered exactly that. (For further reading on this please see appendix "Errors in the Bible?")
The apostle Paul, an expert on ancient scriptures said, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall fully know even as I also am fully known. [2]. By this we know that even the most thorough study of the Bible is limited and will only allow us a partial view - maybe not even that, if we don’t combine what we read to our personal experience with God, listening also to the other ways in which he seeks to communicates with us. This, I most earnestly encourage you to do, all through our study, through prayer, meditation and reflection on the partciular way in which God is revealing imself to you.
How to see beyond the words
So what is it that we want to see in the Gospels? First of all what Jesus was like! We’ve already recognized that the writers had different perspectives of the events concerning Jesus’ life on earth. By the way they recounted their stroy, we will also recognise that they had different personality and somewhat different aims. Matthew, for example, wrote for an Israelite audience and to show them that Jesus was their long-awaited messiah, he often quoted Old Testament scripture. This is a major characteristic of his gospel, probably the first to be written, at a time when Christianity was still contained within Judaism. John, instead, was the last apostles to write a Gospel and he had time to mature things about the nature of Jesus, which others did not understand before. It is John, in fact, who remembers Jesus saying "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you"[3]. John did exactly that in his Gospel, he proclaimed those things which were revealed to him much later by the Holy Spirit, and we shall soon see what they were.
Clearly, it is not necessary for us now to understand all the differences between the four evangelists and their gospels, nor to have a full explanation of all aspect that are a bit difficult to understand. With time a fuller understanding will come naturally and, for the time being, our efforts are better spent in trying to connect the dots and get a picture of what Jesus was like. If Jesus is the Living Word, the expression of God the Father, then if we see Him, we’ll see God: “Philip said unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us. Jesus said unto him, have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father" [4]. So it is in the Gospels that we can see Jesus, and to see Him better we must not only listen to what he taught, but also look at what he did, how he reacted to certain situations and how he handled different types of people. We must also seek to understand the kind of world he came into and the changes he was aiming towards. All these combined elements will help us to obtain the clearest and most complete picture of Jesus available.
How not to read
What we, instead, must not do, is project our preconceived ideas into what we read. By doing so and using only partial aspects of the gospels, we could in effect end up with a skewed image of Jesus, or one that is perhaps more to (or in) our likeness. For example, if we tend to be quarrelsome, presumptuous and judgmental towards others, we could find some excuse for it in the image of Jesus angrily driving out the money changers and merchants from the temple. If we tend, instead, towards self perfection, legalism and an intolerant attitude towards sinners, we could feel justified by Jesus’ statement "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shall not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart"[5]. By focusing only on partial aspects of the Gospel, instead of looking at the whole, we can easily paint Jesus as an angry prophet who punishes the wicked with a whip, or as an unforgiving moralist who, not only punishes people for the wrongs they do, but even for those they merely imagine.
Getting the full picture
This is why is so important to aim for a full spectrum of what Jesus was like, which is done by reading, comparing and studying the Gospels until each aspect of His life and message blend together as one. Let us take, for example, the sentence which was just quoted on adultery; taken alone it leads to certain automatic conclusions, but if we wish for a fuller picture, we need to search in the Gospels for how Jesus handled the various cases of adultery which he encountered. There is the adulteress who was brought to him for judgment, the Samaritan woman who had had five husbands and was living with a man she was not married to, Mary Magdalene, and so on [6].
This same principle works goes for everything else that we’ll be studying in the Bible. If we now apply it faithfully to our reading of the Gospels, I am convinced that, except for a few questions here and there, we will gain a fairly clear picture of Jesus, of what he taught and how he behaved. What’s more, is that His thoughts will begin to run through our minds, and his behavior will start to show in ours. Hopefully we will have reached the goal of this first part of our study. In any situation which we may encounter, we’ll then be able to ask "if Jesus was here now, what would he do?" and the answer should be easy. At that point we shall be ready to move on, as we will have learned the basic criterion to use for the rest of our study.
I end here this introduction by wishing you a happy and rewarding immersion into the Gospels.
Note: I tried not to be repetitive, but to make each part as complete as possible so that it could be used also as a separate unit, some repeating was unavoidable. Some deeper insights into some aspects of this course, but which I did not consider essential to the same, I have included as appendixes. They are mostly answer to some specific question that may arise while studying.
1. John 1, 1 to 3:14
2. 1st Corinthians 13, 12
3. John 16, 12 to 14
4. Gospel of John 14, 8:09
5. Matthew 5; 27.28
6. John 8: 3 to 11 and John 4: 16 to 19
