The four canonical gospels follow a similar structure in recounting the life of Jesus: he starts his public ministry alongside John the Baptist, gathers disciples, teaches, performs miracles, engages with the Pharisees, is crucified, and resurrects from the dead. However, each gospel presents its unique interpretation of Jesus and his divine mission. Scholars acknowledge that the variations in details among the gospels are irreconcilable, and any effort to reconcile them would undermine their individual theological emphases. 

Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known as the synoptic gospels due to their presentation of similar narratives about Jesus’ life. Mark’s account commences with the baptism of Jesus as an adult and the proclamation from heaven declaring him the Son of God. Jesus gathers disciples, begins his ministry, foretells his death and resurrection, faces acclaim and rejection in Jerusalem, is betrayed, crucified, and eventually discovered missing from his tomb by women followers. Mark refrains from explicitly labelling Jesus as “God” or asserting his pre-existence before his earthly life. He appears to endorse the idea of Jesus having a normal human birth and parentage, without tracing his lineage to King David or Adam. Originally, Mark’s gospel concludes without any post-resurrection appearances. 

As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. 6 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’” 8 Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid. ( Mark 16: 5-8 ) 

However, there implies awareness of this tradition, hinting at a future meeting between Jesus and his disciples in Galilee. 

But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’” ( Mark 16:7 ) 

The authors of Matthew and Luke augmented the narrative they found in Mark by including infancy and resurrection accounts, although these additions differ significantly between the two. Additionally, both Matthew and Luke made subtle theological modifications to Mark’s gospel. While Mark’s miracle stories portray Jesus as a messenger of God, Matthew emphasizes his divinity through these miracles. Furthermore, the “young man” mentioned at Jesus’ tomb in Mark is depicted as a radiant angel in Matthew’s account. Although Luke closely follows Mark’s storyline, he expands upon the source material, corrects grammatical errors, and omits certain passages, such as chapters 6 and 7, altogether. 

John, characterized by its theological depth, diverges from the other gospels by offering Christological interpretations beyond the scope of Jesus’ earthly life narrative. Unlike the synoptic gospels, John’s account of Jesus’s career does not include details about his ancestry, birth, childhood, baptism, temptation, or transfiguration. Additionally, John’s chronology and sequencing of events differ significantly from the synoptics. Notably, John portrays three years of Jesus’s ministry, places the cleansing of the Temple at the beginning rather than the end, and depicts the Last Supper occurring on the day before Passover instead of during Passover itself. John’s gospel uniquely refers to Jesus as God and presents Jesus openly declaring his identity as the Messiah, in contrast to Mark where Jesus conceals his messianic identity. 

The four canonical gospels found in the New Testament of the Bible were likely written between AD 66 and 110. Scholars generally agree that these gospels were originally anonymous and attributed to the “Four Evangelists” in the 2nd century. It is widely believed that none of the authors were eyewitnesses to the events they described, and their accounts are the result of extensive oral and written traditions. Mark is thought to be the earliest gospel, followed by Matthew and Luke, which both utilized Mark’s narrative alongside other sources. John’s gospel is believed to have originated from a hypothetical Signs Gospel circulated within a Johannine community. Additionally, several non-canonical gospels were written later, each promoting the theological perspectives of their authors. Examples include the gospels of Thomas, Peter, Judas, and Mary, as well as infancy, gospels like that of James, which introduced the concept of Mary’s perpetual virginity, and gospel harmonies such as the Diatessaron.