Deion Awah
Professor Denny
Theology 1000c
8 December 2015

Continuity and Change in the Bible The New Testament contains the four synoptic gospels that were written by different authors at different periods. It goes without saying that each author had a different view of Jesus and his life story, which makes it hard for a reader to understand the full context of the life of Jesus. The several differences in the gospels dispute one another and depict Jesus with several different characteristics; it shows how many different personal circumstances may have shaped the way each author wrote their own version of the gospels and can it can be concluded that that New Testament is contradictory due to those circumstances. It is has been said that Matthew was the first gospel written out of the synoptic gospels followed by Mark, and then Luke and lastly John. John and Matthew are the only two authors who witnessed the life of Jesus but strangely their depiction of Jesus couldn’t be anymore different from one another. It is strange that John and Matthew have completely different outlooks on what Jesus was like even though they both physically witnessed him, I think it takes away a sense of truth from the Bible. While writing their own gospels Mark and Luke both drew inspiration from Matthew in writing their own gospels so there is an underlying resemblance between the three. John on the other hand depicts Jesus way differently than the rest. John writes about Jesus as the self-proclaimed Son of God, within the first chapter of John, Jesus is already heard saying, “behold the Lamb of God”(Jhn 1:36-37), to his disciples. In John 3:17-19, he tells the Pharisee Nicodemus that he will be condemned if he doesn’t believe in the name of the only Son of God. That is already a few instances of Jesus in the first few chapters of the New Testament proclaiming