Part of the series on Christianity

History of Christianity Jesus of Nazareth The Apostles Ecumenical councils Great Schism The Crusades Reformation Christianity is a monotheistic religion centered on the life, teachings, and actions of Jesus of Nazareth, known by Christians as Jesus Christ, as recounted in the New Testament. ... Image File history File links Christian_cross. ... This article outlines the history of Christianity and provides links to relevant topics. ... Jesus (8-2 BC/BCE – 29-36 AD/CE),[1] also known as Jesus of Nazareth, is the central figure of Christianity, in which context he is known as Jesus Christ, where Christ is a Greek title meaning Anointed, corresponding to the Hebrew term Messiah. The main sources of information... The Twelve Apostles (in Koine Greek απόστολος apostolos [1], someone sent forth/sent out, an emissary) were probably Galilean Jewish men (10 names are Aramaic, 4 names are Greek) chosen from among the disciples, who were sent forth by Jesus of Nazareth to preach the Gospel to both Jews and Gentiles... In Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, an ecumenical council or general council is a meeting of the bishops of the whole church convened to discuss and settle matters of Church doctrine and practice. ... Great Schism redirects here. ... This article is about the medieval crusades. ... The Protestant Reformation was a movement which emerged in the 16th century as a series of attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church in Western Europe. ...

The Trinity of God God the Father Christ the Son The Holy Spirit For other uses, see Trinity (disambiguation). ... In many religions, the supreme God is given the title and attributions of Father. ... This page is about the title. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Christian theology Christian Church Christian worship Grace · Salvation Sermon on the Mount The Ten Commandments Christian theology practices theology from a Christian viewpoint or studies Christianity theologically. ... In Christian theology, One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church is a phrase describing the nature of the Christian community and/or Christian Church, in the various meanings it has. ... This article is in need of attention. ... Divine grace is believed by Christians to be the sovereign favor of God exercised in the bestowment of blessings upon those who have no merit in them. ... Salvation refers to deliverance from an undesirable state or condition. ... The Sermon on the Mount by Carl Heinrich Bloch. ... This article is about the list of religious and moral imperatives. ...

The Christian Bible Old Testament New Testament Apocrypha The Bible (Hebrew: תנ״ך tanakh, Greek: η Βίβλος hē biblos) (sometimes The Holy Bible, The Book, Word of God, The Word Scripture, Scripture), from Greek (τα) βίβλια, (ta) biblia, (the) books, is the name used by Jews and Christians for their (differing but overlapping) canons of sacred texts. ... Note: Judaism commonly uses the term Tanakh, but not Old Testament, because it does not recognize the concept of a New Testament. ... See New Covenant for the concept translated as New Testament in the KJV. The New Testament, sometimes called the Greek Testament or Greek Scriptures, and, in recent times, also New Covenant, is the name given to the part of the Christian Bible that was written in the first centuries of... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ...

Christian denominations Catholicism Orthodox Christianity Protestantism A denomination, in the Christian sense of the word, is an identifiable religious body, organization under a common name, structure, and/or doctrine. ... This article considers Catholicism in the broadest ecclesiastical sense. ... Orthodox Christianity is a generalized reference to the Eastern traditions of Christianity, as opposed to the Western traditions which descend from the Catholic Church. ... Protestantism is a movement within Christianity, representing the splitting away from the Roman Catholic Church during the mid-to-late Renaissance in Europe—a period known as the Protestant Reformation. ... Christian movements Christian movements are theological, political, or philosophical intepretations of Christianity that are not generally represented by a specific church, sect, or denomination. ...

For the genre of Christian-themed music, see gospel music.

For the novel by Wilton Barnhardt, see Gospel: a novel, for the manga, see One-Pound Gospel.

In Christianity, gospel means "good news". The word gospel derives from the Old English word for "good news" (literally, "God Spell"), a translation of the Greek word ευαγγέλιον, euangelion. From this word comes the term "evangelist." Gospel music may refer either to the religious music that first came out of African-American churches in the 1930s or, more loosely, to both black gospel music and to the religious music composed and sung by white southern Christian artists. ... Wilton Barnhardt (1960-) is the author of Emma Who Saved My Life (1989), Gospel (1993), and Show World (1999). ... For other uses, see Manga (disambiguation). ... Issue cover One-Pound Gospel (Japanese: 1ポンドの福音) is a manga series created by Rumiko Takahashi, author of InuYasha and other works. ... Christianity is a monotheistic religion centered on the life, teachings, and actions of Jesus of Nazareth, known by Christians as Jesus Christ, as recounted in the New Testament. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Gospel. ... Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon) is an early form of the English language that was spoken in parts of what is now England and southern Scotland between the mid-fifth century and the mid-twelfth century. ...

Gospel has generally been used in three ways:

1. To denote the proclamation of God's saving activity in Jesus of Nazareth or to denote the message proclaimed by Jesus of Nazareth. This is the original New Testament usage (see Romans 1.1 or Mark 1.1).
2. More popularly to refer to the four canonical Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) and sometimes other non-canonical works (eg. Gospel of Thomas), that offer a narrative of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
3. Some modern scholars have used the term to denote a hypothetical genre of Early Christian literature (cf. Peter Stuhlmacher, ed., Das Evangelium und die Evangelien, Tübingen 1983, also in English: The Gospel and the Gospels).

The expression "gospel" was used by Paul before the literary Gospels of the New Testament canon had been produced, when he reminded the men of the church at Corinth "of the gospel I preached to you" (1 Corinthians 15.1) through which, Paul averred, they were being saved, and he characterized it in the simplest terms, emphasizing Christ's appearances after the Resurrection (15.3 – 8): This article concerns critical reconstructions of the Historical Jesus. ... The Biblical canon is an exclusive list of books written during the formative period of the Jewish or Christian faiths; the leaders of these communities believed these books to be inspired by God or to express the authoritative history of the relationship between God and his people (although there may... The Gospel of Matthew (literally: according to Matthew, Greek: Κατα Μαθθαιον ) is one of the four Gospel accounts of the New Testament. ... The Gospel of Mark is traditionally the second of the New Testament Gospels. ... The Gospel of Luke is the third of the four canonical Gospels of the New Testament, which tell the story of Jesus life, death, and resurrection. ... The Gospel according to John is the fourth gospel document in the sequence of the canon of the New Testament, and scholars agree it was the fourth to be written down. ... The Gospel of Thomas, completely preserved in a papyrus Coptic manuscript discovered in 1945 at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, is a list of 114 sayings attributed to Jesus. ... In non-technical terms, no matter what the context (whether scientific, philosophical, legal, etc) a narrative is a story, an interpretation of some aspect of the world that is historically and culturally grounded and shaped by human personality (per Walter Fisher). ... A genre is a division of a particular form of art according to criteria particular to that form. ... Literature is literally acquaintance with letters as in the first sense given in the Oxford English Dictionary (from the Latin littera meaning an individual written character (letter)). The term has generally come to identify a collection of texts, which in Western culture are mainly prose, both fiction and non-fiction... Saul, also known as Paul, Paulus, and Saint Paul the Apostle, (AD 3–67) is widely considered to be central to the early development and spread of Christianity, particularly westward from Judea. ... Corinth, or Korinth (Κόρινθος; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is a Greek city, on the Isthmus of Corinth, the narrow stretch of land that joins the Peloponnesus to the mainland of Greece. ... (Redirected from 1 Corinthians) See also: Second Epistle to the Corinthians and Third Epistle to the Corinthians The First Epistle to the Corinthians is a book of the Bible in the New Testament. ...

"...that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried; and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures; And that he was seen of Cephas; then of the Twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethern at once: of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some have fallen asleep. After that he was seen of James, then of all the apostles. Last of all, he was seen of me also, as one born out of due time."

The use of gospel (or its Greek equivalent evangelion) to denote a particular genre of writing dates to the 2nd century. It was clearly used to denote a genre in Justin Martyr (c. 155) and more ambiguously so earlier in Ignatius of Antioch (c. 117). 11th century Targum Tanakh [תנ״ך] (also Tanach, IPA: or ) is an acronym that identifies the Hebrew Bible. ... Saint Peter, also known as Peter, Simon ben Jonah/BarJonah, Simon Peter, Cephas and Kepha—original name Simon or Simeon (Acts 15:14)—was one of the twelve original disciples or apostles of Jesus. ... The Twelve Apostles (in Koine Greek απόστολος apostolos [1], someone sent forth/sent out, an emissary) were probably Galilean Jewish men (10 names are Aramaic, 4 names are Greek) chosen from among the disciples, who were sent forth by Jesus of Nazareth to preach the Gospel to both Jews and Gentiles... Saint Justin Martyr (Justin the Martyr a. ... Icon of Ignatius being eaten by lions St. ...

Canonical Gospels

Of the many gospels written in antiquity, exactly four gospels came to be accepted as part of the New Testament, or canonical. An insistence upon a canonical four, and no others, was a central theme of Irenaeus of Lyons, c. 185. In his central work, Adversus Haereses Irenaeus denounced various Christian groups that used only one gospel, such as Aramaic Matthew, as well as groups that embraced the texts of new revelations, such as the Valentinians (A.H. 1.11.9). Irenaeus declared that the four he espoused were the four pillars of the Church: "it is not possible that there can be either more or fewer than four" he stated, presenting as logic the analogy of the four corners of the earth and the four winds (1.11.8). His image, taken from Ezekiel 1, of God's throne borne by four creatures with four faces—"the four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and the four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle"— equivalent to the "four-formed" gospel, is the origin of the conventional symbols of the Evangelists: lion, bull, eagle, man. Irenaeus was successful in declaring that the four gospels collectively, and exclusively these four, contained the truth. By reading each gospel in light of the others, Irenaeus made of John a lens through which to read Matthew, Mark and Luke. The chronology of Jesus depicts the traditional chronology established for the events of the life of Jesus by the four canonical gospels (which allude to various dates for several events). ... Jesus (8-2 BC/BCE – 29-36 AD/CE),[1] also known as Jesus of Nazareth, is the central figure of Christianity, in which context he is known as Jesus Christ, where Christ is a Greek title meaning Anointed, corresponding to the Hebrew term Messiah. The main sources of information... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Jesus. ... The Nativity refers to the birth of Jesus. ... Jacopo Bellinis Madonna and Child Blessing depicts the infant Jesus in the act of blessing the viewer The Child Jesus is a religious archetypal symbol based on the activities of Jesus as an infant up to the age of twelve that recurs throughout history starting from around the 3rd... The Baptism of Christ, by Piero della Francesca, 1449 The Baptism of Jesus is the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. ... In Christianity, the temptation of Christ refers to the temptation of Jesus by Satan as detailed in the New Testament, specifically: Matthew 4:1-11 Mark 1:12-13 Luke 4:1-13 According to these Gospels, Jesus has fasted for forty days and nights in the desert or wilderness... The Sermon on the Mount by Carl Heinrich Bloch. ... The word Transfiguration means a changing of appearance or form. ... This article relates to the events described in the New Testament of the Bible, see The Last Supper (disambiguation) for other uses, including a list of famous works of art with this name. ... The Passion is the technical term for the suffering and Agony of Jesus that led directly to the Crucifixion, a central Christian event. ... Crucifixion is an ancient method of execution, where the victim was tied or nailed to a large wooden cross (Latin: crux) and left to hang there until dead. ... The Harrowing of Hell, as depicted in the Petites Heures de Jean de Berry, a fourteenth-century illuminated manuscript. ... According to the Trinitarian interpretation of the New Testament, Jesus was both human and God, so he had the power to lay his life down and to take it up again; thus after Jesus died, he came back to life. ... The Great Commission is to evangelical Christians the basis for their worldview and activities arising from it. ... Icon of the Ascension. ... See New Covenant for the concept translated as New Testament in the KJV. The New Testament, sometimes called the Greek Testament or Greek Scriptures, and, in recent times, also New Covenant, is the name given to the part of the Christian Bible that was written in the first centuries of... The Biblical canon is an exclusive list of books written during the formative period of the Jewish or Christian faiths; the leaders of these communities believed these books to be inspired by God or to express the authoritative history of the relationship between God and his people (although there may... St. ... The Gospel of the Hebrews (see About titles below), is a lost gospel that is only preserved in a few quotations in the Panarion of Epiphanius, a church writer who lived at the end of the 4th century AD, who goes on to say that. ... Valentinius, more usually called Valentinus (c. ... Analogy is either the cognitive process of transferring information from a particular subject (the analogue or source) to another particular subject (the target), or a linguistic expression corresponding to such a process. ... Ezekiel the Prophet of the Hebrew Scriptures is depicted on a 1510 Sistine Chapel fresco by Michelangelo. ...

• Gospel according to Matthew-written to a Jewish audience
• Gospel according to Mark-written to a Roman audience
• Gospel according to Luke-written to "most excellent Theophilus" (Greek)
• Gospel according to John-written to all humankind

The Gospel of Matthew is one of the four Gospels of the New Testament. ... The Gospel of Mark is the second in the familiar sequence of the New Testament Gospels, as they were established by Jerome and appear in many but not all early manuscripts of complete gospels, and as they are commonly printed. ... The Gospel of Luke is the third of the four canonical Gospels of the New Testament, which tell the story of Jesus life, death, and resurrection. ... The Gospel of John is the fourth gospel in the sequence of the canon as printed in the New Testament, and scholars agree it was the fourth to be written. ...

Origin of the canonical Gospels

Main discussion: Synoptic problem.

Among the canonical Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke include many of the same passages in the life of Jesus and sometimes use identical or very similar wording. John expresses itself in a different style and relates the same incidents in a different way— even in a revised narrative order— and is often full of more encompassing theological and philosophical messages than the first three canonical Gospel accounts. It is John that explicitly introduces Jesus as God incarnate. The synoptic problem concerns the literary relationship between and among the first three canonical gospels (the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke), known as the synoptic gospels. ...

(The non-canonical Gospel of Peter reports much of the same material as canonical Matthew, Mark and Luke; and the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas reports many of the same sayings of Jesus.) The Gospel of Peter was a prominent passion narrative in the early history of Christianity, but over time passed out of common usage. ... The Gospel of Thomas, completely preserved in a papyrus Coptic manuscript discovered in 1945 at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, is a list of 114 sayings attributed to Jesus. ...

The parallels among the first three Gospel accounts are so telling that many scholars have investigated the relationship between them. In order to study them more closely, German scholar JJ Griesbach (1776) arranged the first three Gospel accounts in a three-column table called a synopsis. As a result, Matthew, Mark, and Luke have come to be known as the synoptic Gospels; and the question of the reason for this similarity, and the relationship between these Gospel accounts more generally, is known as the Synoptic Problem. Johann Jakob Griesbach (January 4, 1745 - March 24, 1812), German biblical critic, was born at Butzbach, a small town in the state of Hesse, where his father, Konrad Kaspar (1705-1777), was pastor. ... Look up Synopsis on Wiktionary, the free dictionary A synopsis (Greek συνοψις, synopsis, a seeing-together) is a brief summary or overview. ... The Synoptic Gospels is a term used by modern New Testament scholars for the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke of the New Testament in the Bible. ... The synoptic problem concerns the literary relationship between and among the first three canonical gospels (the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke), known as the synoptic gospels. ...

The understanding found among early Christian writers and scholars has been that the first account of the Gospel to be committed to writing was that according to Matthew, the second Luke, followed by Mark and the final one John; and this order is defended today by proponents of the "Two-Gospel Hypothesis". However, since then Enlightenment scholars have been proposing also many other solutions to the Synoptic Problem; and the dominant view today is that Mark is the first Gospel, with Matthew and Luke borrowing passages both from that Gospel and from at least one other common source, lost to history, termed by scholars 'Q' (from German: Quelle, meaning source. This view is known as the "Two Source Hypothesis". The related "Four Source Hypothesis" maintains that Matthew and Luke also had independent sources, termed by scholars M and L. The Q document or Q (Q for German Quelle, source) is a postulated lost textual source for the Gospel of Matthew and Gospel of Luke. ... The Two-Source Hypothesis is the most commonly accepted solution to the synoptic problem among biblical scholars, which posits that there are two sources to Gospel of Matthew and Gospel of Luke: the Gospel of Mark and a lost, hypothetical sayings collection called Q. The Two-Source Hypothesis was first...

Another theory which addresses the synoptic problem is the Farrer hypothesis. This theory maintains Markan priority (that Mark was written first) and dispenses with the need for a theoretical document Q. What Austin Farrer has argued is that Luke used Matthew as a source as well as Mark, explaining the similarities between them without having to refer to a hypothetical document. The Farrer theory is a possible solution to the synoptic problem. ... Markan priority is the hypothesis that the Gospel of Mark was the first written of the three Synoptic Gospels, and that the two other synoptic evangelists, Matthew and Luke, used Marks Gospel as one of their sources. ... Austin Farrer (1904-1968) English theologian, biblical scholar, and philosopher. ...

Estimates for the dates when the canonical Gospel accounts were written vary significantly; and the evidence for any of the dates is scanty. Conservative scholars tend to date earlier than others. The following are mostly the date ranges given by the late Raymond E. Brown, in his book An Introduction to the New Testament, as representing the general scholarly consensus in 1996: Father Raymond Edward Brown, S.S., (born 22 May 1928, died August 8, 1998), appointed in 1972 and in 1996 to the Pontifical Biblical Commission, which advises the pontiff on scriptural matters, and professor emeritus at the Protestant Union Theological Seminary in New York where he taught for 23 years...

• Matthew: c. 70–100 as the majority view, with conservative scholars arguing for a pre-70 date, particularly if they do not accept Mark as the first gospel written.
• Mark: c. 68–73
• Luke: c. 80–100, with most arguing for somewhere around 85
• John: c. 90–110. Brown does not give a consensus view for John, but these are dates as propounded by C K Barrett, among others. The majority view is that it was written in stages, so there was no one date of composition.

The general consensus among biblical scholars is that all four canonical Gospels were originally written in Greek, the lingua franca of the Roman Orient. On the strength of an early commentator it has been suggested that Matthew may have originally been written in Aramaic, and was known to Church fathers as the Gospel of the Hebrews, or that it was translated from Aramaic to Greek with corrections based on Mark. Regardless, no Aramaic original texts of the Gospel accounts have ever been found, only later translations from the Greek (see Peshitta). It is also widely thought that the Gospels were based on an earlier oral tradition. Lingua franca, literally Frankish language in Italian, was originally a mixed language consisting largely of Italian plus a vocabulary drawn from Turkish, Persian, French, Greek and Arabic and used for communication throughout the Middle East. ... Aramaic is a Semitic language with a 3,000-year history. ... The (Early) Church Fathers or Fathers of the Church are the early and influential theologians and writers in the Christian Church, particularly those of the first five centuries of Christian history. ... The Gospel of the Hebrews (see About titles below), is a lost gospel that is only preserved in a few quotations in the Panarion of Epiphanius, a church writer who lived at the end of the 4th century AD, who goes on to say that. ... The Peshitta is the standard version of the Bible in the Syriac language. ...

Non-canonical gospels

Main article: New Testament apocrypha.

In addition to the four canonical gospels there have been other gospels that were not accepted into the canon. Some of these works appear to be later compositions than the canonical gospels, and as such were only ever accepted by small portions of the early Christian community. Some of the content of these non-canonical gospels (as much as it deviates from accepted theological norms) is considered heretical by the leadership of mainstream churches, including the Vatican. The category of New Testament apocrypha reminds the modern reader of the wide range of responses that were engendered in interpreting the message of Jesus of Nazareth during the first several centuries of the Common Era, as mainstream Christianity emerged. ... Heresy, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is a theological or religious opinion or doctrine maintained in opposition, or held to be contrary, to the Catholic or Orthodox doctrine of the Christian Church, or, by extension, to that of any church, creed, or religious system, considered as orthodox. ...

The two earliest non-canonical gospels are the sayings Gospel of Thomas and the narrative Gospel of Peter. The Gospel of Thomas, completely preserved in a papyrus Coptic manuscript discovered in 1945 at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, is a list of 114 sayings attributed to Jesus. ... The Gospel of Peter was a prominent passion narrative in the early history of Christianity, but over time passed out of common usage. ...

A genre of "Infancy gospels" (Greek: protoevangelion) arose in the 2nd century, such as the Gospel of James, which introduces the concept of the Perpetual Virginity of Mary, and the Infancy Gospel of Thomas (not to be confused with the sayings Gospel of Thomas), both of which related many miraculous incidents from the life of Mary and the childhood of Jesus that are not included in the canonical gospels, but which have passed into Christian lore. Several surviving infancy gospels give an idea of the miracle literature that was created in the early Christian church to satisfy the hunger of early Christians for more detail about the early life of their Savior. ... The Gospel of James also sometimes known as the Infancy Gospel of James or the Protevangelium of James probably written about AD 150. ... The Perpetual Virginity of Mary is a Catholic and Orthodox doctrine of faith which states that Mary, the mother of Jesus, remained an actual virgin, implying both virginal disposition and physical integrity, before, during, and after the birth of Jesus. ... The Infancy Gospel of Thomas is a non-canonical Christian text that was part of a popular genre of the 2nd and 3rd centuries— a miracle literature of Infancy gospels that was both entertaining and inspirational, written to satisfy a hunger for more miraculous and anecdotal stories of the childhood...

Another genre that has been suppressed is that of gospel harmonies, in which the apparent discrepancies in the canonical four gospels were selectively recast to present a harmoniously consistent narrative text. Very few fragments of harmonies survived. The Diatessaron was such a harmonization, compiled by Tatian around AD 175. It was popular for at least two centuries in Syria, but eventually it fell into disuse, and no copies of it have survived, except indirectly in some medieval Gospel harmonies that can be considered its descendants. Tatians Diatessaron was one of a number of harmonies of the four Gospels, that is, the material of the four distinct Gospels rewritten as a continuous narrative resolving all conflicting statements. ... Tatian was an early Christian writer and theologian of the second century. ...

Marcion of Sinope, c. AD 150, produced his own edition of the Gospel of Luke in accordance with his dualistic belief in two different gods, the compassionate God of Christ and the cruel God of the Old Testament. Specifically, he removed those parts of Luke that he considered too "Jewish". He also rejected all other gospels. Marcion of Sinope (ca. ...

The existence of private knowledge, briefly referred to in the canon, is part of the contention surrounding the Secret Gospel of Mark. The Secret Gospel of Mark refers to a previously unsuspected gospel mentioned in a letter that presents itself as written by Clement of Alexandria. ...

List of non-canonical ("apocryphal") Gospels

Some Gospels that were not eventually included in the canon are similar in style and content to the canonical Gospels. Others are "sayings gospels", as lost Q is supposed to have been. Still others are Gnostic (dualistic role that flesh is evil and spirit is good) in style and content, presenting a very different view of teaching. Gnosticism is a blanket term for various religions and sects most prominent in the first few centuries A.D. General characteristics The word gnosticism comes from the Greek word for knowledge, gnosis (γνῶσις), referring to the idea that there is special, hidden mysticism (esoteric knowledge) that only a few possess. ...

Gospels that were not accepted into the Canon, yet form part of some religions New Testament Apocrypha, include: The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ...

• Gospel of Thomas
• Gospel of Philip
• Gospel of Peter
• Gospel of Mary Magdalene
• Gospel of the Egyptians
• Gospel of the Hebrews
• Gospel of James
• Gospel of Judas

• See also the mistaken "Gospel of Hermes".

Other works claiming to be gospels have surfaced in later periods. The Gospel of Barnabas originated in the medieval period. Works from the modern period (sometimes called modern apocrypha) include the Aquarian Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Life of Issa (allegedly discovered by Nicolas Notovitch) and a thorough account of the events in the first century were documented by Josephus, a Jewish Historian in the first century. The Gospel of Thomas, completely preserved in a papyrus Coptic manuscript discovered in 1945 at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, is a list of 114 sayings attributed to Jesus. ... The Gospel of Philip is one of the texts of the New Testament apocrypha. ... The Gospel of Peter was a prominent passion narrative in the early history of Christianity, but over time passed out of common usage. ... The Gospel of Mary Magdalene was found in the Akhmim Codex, a gnostic text of the New Testament apocrypha acquired by Dr. Rheinhardt in Cairo in 1896. ... The suppressed Gospel of the Egyptians, written at the end of the 1st century or the beginning of the 2nd century AD, was cited by Clement of Alexandria, whose quotations give us many of the brief excerpts that remain, and it was mentioned by Hippolytus and Epiphanius of Constantinople. ... The Gospel of the Hebrews (see About titles below), is a lost gospel that is only preserved in a few quotations in the Panarion of Epiphanius, a church writer who lived at the end of the 4th century AD, who goes on to say that. ... The Gospel of James also sometimes known as the Infancy Gospel of James or the Protevangelium of James probably written about AD 150. ... The Gospel of Judas is a document that was in use among the Cainites, an early Christian gnostic sect, which was published in 2006 after being partially reconstructed. ... The so-called Gospel of Hermes, often referred to on the Internet based on a mistaken reference at Wikipedia, does not actually exist as an Early Christian apocryphal text. ... The Gospel of Barnabas is a work purporting to be a depiction of the life of Jesus by his disciple Barnabas. ... Matt Baker gets his bifkin licked by Matt Cox ... Nicolas Notovitch (1858-?) was a French scholar and journalist made famous for his revelation that during the years of Jesus Christs life missing from the Bible, he followed travelling merchants abroad into India and Nepal, where he studied Buddhism. ... Josephus (c. ...

There are also works that do not purport to be revealed but are titled "gospel" anyway:

• The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by José Saramago

José Saramago José Saramago (pron. ...

Liturgical usage

In many Christian churches, all Christians present stand when a passage from one of the Gospels is read publicly, and sit when a passage from a different part of the Bible is read. The reading of the Gospels, often contained in a liturgical edition containing only the four Gospels, is traditionally done by a minister or priest, and in many traditions is brought into the midst of the congregation to be read. The Bible (Hebrew: תנ״ך tanakh, Greek: η Βίβλος hē biblos) (sometimes The Holy Bible, The Book, Word of God, The Word Scripture, Scripture), from Greek (τα) βίβλια, (ta) biblia, (the) books, is the name used by Jews and Christians for their (differing but overlapping) canons of sacred texts. ...

Usage in Eastern Orthodoxy liturgy

Illustration from the Siysky Gospel (1339).

The Gospel book, usually decorated in an elaborate metal cover, is normally kept in a central place on the altar. The only things that are permitted to occupy this place on the altar are the chalice and discos for the celebration of the Eucharist or, on certain feasts, a Cross. During the Little Entrance, the Gospel is carried from the altar, through the nave of the church, and back into the altar. For the Gospel reading itself, the Gospel is brought from the altar to the ambo, and afterwards returned to its place. ... From the Greek word λειτουργια, which can be transliterated as leitourgia, meaning the work of the people, a liturgy comprises a prescribed religious ceremony, according to the traditions of a particular religion; it may refer to, or include, an elaborate formal ritual (such as the Catholic Mass), a daily activity such... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (481x700, 71 KB)Illustration from the Siysky Gospel (ca 1340). ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (481x700, 71 KB)Illustration from the Siysky Gospel (ca 1340). ... Antoniev Siysky Monastery is located on a cape of the Great Mikhailovo Lake. ... An ancient Roman altar PROTESTANTISM RULES!!! An altar is any structure upon which sacrifices or other offerings are offered for religious purposes. ... Russian chalice A chalice (from Latin calix, cup) is a goblet intended to hold drink. ... A paten is a small plate, usually made of silver or gold, used to hold Eucharistic hosts. ... The Eucharist or Communion or The Lords Supper, is the rite that Christians perform in fulfillment of Jesus instruction, recorded in the New Testament, to do in memory of him what he did at his Last Supper. ... In the Christian liturgical calendar, there are several different feasts known as Feasts of the Cross, all of which commemorate the cross used in the crucifixion of Jesus. ... The traditional form of the Christian cross, known as the Latin cross. ... In Eastern Orthodoxy, an entrance is a liturgical movement from one part of the sanctuary to another. ... Links to full descriptions of the elements of a Gothic floorplan are also found at the entry Cathedral diagram. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...

A Gospel passage is read in the Divine Liturgy on every Sunday or feast, and at daily services during the week. The reading is determined according to the annual liturgical calendar. (If a feast falls on a Sunday, the reading for that feast will often be included after or in place of the Sunday reading.) The cycle of readings begins with Pascha and the Pentecostarion (between Pascha and Pentecost), continues with the Sundays after Pentecost, and concludes with the Lenten Triodion and Holy Week. The number of Sundays from one Pascha to the next varies from year to year; in some years, not all the passages for Sundays after Pentecost will be read, while in others, some weeks will have to be repeated. The Divine Liturgy is the common term for the eucharistic service of the Byzantine tradition of Christian liturgy. ... The liturgical year, also known as the Christian year, consists of the cycle of liturgical seasons in some Christian churches which determines when Feasts, Memorials, Commemorations, and Solemnities are to be observed and which portions of Scripture are to be read. ... Easter (also called Pascha) is generally accounted the most important holiday of the Christian year, observed March or April each year to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead (after his death by crucifixion; see Good Friday), which Christians believe happened at about this time of year, almost two... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Great Lent is the greatest fasting period in the church year in Eastern Christianity, which prepares Christians for the greatest feast of the church year, Easter (or Holy Pascha). Although it is in many ways similar to Lent in Western Christianity, there are important differences in the timing of Lent... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Holy Week procession. ...

The entirety of the four Gospels is read in the course of the liturgical year, beginning with John 1:1-17 at the Paschal Matins Resurrection Service. The readings from John end on the Sunday of Pentecost, followed on Holy Spirit Monday by Matthew, starting in Chapter 4 (the Genealogy of Christ through the Nativity is read during the services for Christmas). From the 12th Monday through the 17th Friday after Pentecost, the readings are from the Gospel of St. Mark, with readings from Matt. Ch. 25 on Saturday and Sunday of the 17th week. The 18th Monday after Pentecost begins the readings from Luke, ending on the 29th Sunday. During the remaining weeks, 30-32, the weekday reading are from Mark, the weekend from Luke. This same pattern continues throughout the preparatory weeks from the Lenten Triodion, the Orthodox service book containing texts for the services of Great Lent and Holy Week.

Miniature of St Luke from the Peresopnytsia Gospel (1561).

Once Great Lent begins (during the service of Vespers on Forgivness Sunday), there are no Gospel readings on weekdays; instead, three Old Testament reading are appointed, one each from Genesis, Isaiah, and Proverbs (note: the Lenten services are structured differently to allow this arrangement of reading without the Gospel; see Presanctified Liturgy). On Saturdays and Sundays, a Gospel is read with a message applicable to what the theme of that Sunday is (e.g. St. Mary of Egypt, the Cross, Holy Icons). This practice continues through Holy Week, with the exception of Matins of Great and Holy Friday, during which the 12 Passion Gosples are read, and the service culminates with a prossesion with a large wodden replica of the Cross, borne by the Priest to the ambo, and Christ is symbolically crucified on it. There are no other Gospel readings until Vesperal Liturgy of Holy Saturday, and then the Ressurectional Gospel at Midnight, Pascha Morning. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (734x1208, 172 KB)Gospel of Peresopnytsi. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (734x1208, 172 KB)Gospel of Peresopnytsi. ... Luke the Evangelist (Greek Λουκας Loukas) is said by tradition to be the author of both the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, the third and fifth books of the New Testament. ... Miniature of St Luke. ... The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, or simply (if ungrammatically) Presanctified Liturgy, is an Eastern Orthodox liturgical service for the celebration of the Eucharist on the weekdays of Great Lent. ...

At the Divine Liturgy the Gospel is publicly read by a deacon after he receives a blessing from the celebrating priest or bishop. If there is no deacon present, the priest will read the Gospel himself. As in many other churches, all stand while the Gospel is being read. The Divine Liturgy is the common term for the eucharistic service of the Byzantine tradition of Christian liturgy. ... Deacon is a role in the Christian Church which is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. ... Look up Blessing on Wiktionary, the free dictionary A blessing (from to bless, Old English bleodsian or bletsian) originally meant sprinkling with blood during the pagan sacrifices, the Blóts (reference: AHD). ... Roman Catholic priest LCDR Allen R. Kuss (USN) aboard USS Enterprise A priest or priestess is a holy man or woman who takes an officiating role in worship of any religion, with the distinguishing characteristic of offering sacrifices. ... A bishop is an ordained member of the Christian clergy who, in certain Christian churches, holds a position of authority. ...

In the Sunday Matins service the Gospel is always read by the celebrant. Afterward, the faithful venerate the Book of Gospels and then receive the celebrant's blessing. For the Anglican service of Mattins see Morning Prayer Matins is the early morning prayer service in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox liturgies of the canonical hours. ...

Heraldry

In heraldry the Gospel is a "charge", shown as a sort of book. Heraldry is the art and science of designing, displaying, describing and recording coats-of-arms (also referred to as armorial bearings or simply as arms). Its origins lie in the need to distinguish participants in battles or jousts, whose faces were hidden by steel helmets. ... In heraldry, a charge is the image that occupies the field on an escutcheon (or shield). ...

See also

• logia agrapha are the collections of phrases attributed to Jesus Christ that are not found in the canonical gospels.
• Godspell is a musical based on the gospels of Jesus Christ. Godspel is archaic English for Gospel.

Godspell album cover (1971 Original Off-Broadway Cast) Godspell is a musical based on the Gospel of Saint Matthew with music and new lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by John-Michael Tebelak. ...

External links

• Read Matthew's Gospel at the Bible Gateway.
• Read Mark's Gospel at the Bible Gateway.
• Read Luke's Gospel at the Bible Gateway.
• Read John's Gospel at the Bible Gateway.
• A detailed discussion of the textual variants in the Gospels — covering about 1200 variants on 2000 pages.
• Greek New Testament — the Greek text of the New Testament: specifically the Westcott-Hort text from 1881, combined with the NA26/27 variants.
• Introduction to The Complete Gospels — an excerpt and information about this compilation of canonical and non-canonical gospels in translation.
• Quattuor Evangeliorum Consonantia - The latin harmony of the Gospels (1)
• Quattuor Evangeliorum Consonantia - The latin harmony of the Gospels (2)
• Catholic Encyclopedia article