1) The Christian faith is based on the Gospels?
"Gospel" means "good news", and the good news is that "To you is born a Savior, who is Christ the Lord" (cf. Lk 2:10-11). The Christian faith is based on the living word of Jesus, the Son of God made man.
2) Jesus wrote something? How do we know its message?
Jesus did not write books. Did Jesus write his message in the hearts and minds of living people, the disciples who left to communicate the gospel to all nations (cf. Mt 28:19-20). From them we know who Jesus was and what he taught. Without their testimony would not know the teachings of Jesus (cf. Rom 10.14-17).
3) But then why were the Gospels written?
Without the written Gospels we know also what Jesus taught, but not as taught. Thanks to the Gospels, Christians can still hear his voice. Who has not met Jesus I can do without.
4) Why we talk about the Gospel "according to" Matthew, Mark, Luke and John?
Why so stressed the unity of the message: the Church has received and passed on a single gospel, the gospel of Jesus, which is transmitted in various forms. Irenaeus, the late second century, says that the gospel we have is "fourfold".
5) Why four Gospels? Not a sufficient?
Jesus is a real person. Each evangelist gives a true knowledge, but no one says it all about him (cf. Jn 21.24-25). In this way, each of the Gospels has a wealth of their own. The Christians could not give it up.
6) And the names of the evangelists to indicate what they are?
show that each Gospel refers to one or another of the witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus reflects the name of the gospel references, or the writer who has collected the testimony and put it in writing.
In the second century Papias of Hierapolis attributed to Matthew, a collection of sayings of Jesus in the language of the Jews. This collection seems to be the basis of the Gospel in the Greek language which has survived under the name of Matthew. The same
Papias of Hierapolis reports that "Marco, now the interpreter of Peter, wrote accurately, but not in a specific order, as he noted the things said and done by Christ, indeed, he had not heard [directly] the Lord nor followed him, but later, as I said, followed Peter, who taught as needed, without giving such a complex organization of the Lord. "
The Gospel of John is composite. The final chapter, in which the narrator speaks in first person plural, gives the rest of the Gospel to the "beloved disciple" (cf. Jn 21.23-24).
7) The gospel Therefore apostles?
The evangelists can be themselves apostles, that is "sent" by Jesus himself, or refer to the testimony of the apostles, without being personally (cf. Eph 4:11).
Luca is a disciple of Paul (cf. flm 24). Not being an apostle, said it had questioned carefully by eye-witnesses (cf. Lk 1:1-4).
8) So why the Church accepts only the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John?
Only four Gospels were recognized by the Church as canonical. Besides them, in the New Testament includes other writings such as letters or as the Acts of the Apostles. These are inseparable from the Gospel according to Luke, and tell the first spread of the Gospel in the ancient world.
9) When the four gospels were composed?
In the first century, in life or in the next generation of the apostles, who had been listen to the teachings. Scholars discuss the specific date of each Gospel. For the integrity of faith is sufficient for them to collect the testimony of the apostles.
10) What does "canon"?
The word "canon" in greek means the unit of measurement. "Canon" means "conforming to the canon." In the Gospels the "canon" is conformity to the rule of faith.
11) What would the rule of faith?
faith did not start with the writing of the Gospels, but with the resurrection of Jesus after the Passover, the disciples proclaim that Jesus, the same who died on the cross and was buried, is rose on the third day and appeared to Peter and the Apostles (cf. 1 Cor 15.3-6). This announcement is the Gospel (cf. 1 Cor 15:1-2). Any subsequent investigation will be upheld only if it is consistent with the Easter proclamation.
12) Why is the Christian faith to play on this?
Why, instead of pretending to save himself, the believer is ready to trust in Jesus and be baptized, and this was administered by the disciples only to those who accept the faith of the Church and recognized in it (cf. Mk 16:15 - 16).
13) Once again the Church. But the Church did not come after?
The Church came before the Gospels is just the people of God, that all of those who encountered God's intervention in history, and have had the courage to publicly acknowledge that salvation came through Christ Jesus Believers in Christ are identified, they may accept the testimony public and of the Apostles believe Jesus is risen.
14) Why should depend the salvation of the resurrection of Jesus? It is not a constraint?
no compulsion, except that imposed by the coherence. "If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is vain and your faith is also vain" (1 Cor 15:14). A man died in an ever more distant past can not save those who are alive today. If Jesus is not risen, the winner is sin, and Christians are deluded (cf. 1 Cor 15.17-19).
15) And if the resurrection of Jesus if they were invented by Christians?
If they did, they did since the beginning, before the Gospels were written, and they did it openly, publicly. Everyone is free to accept or reject their testimony. But is this faith that is measured, and this is in accordance with the four canonical Gospels.
16) You might not consider Jesus as we study a philosopher of antiquity?
You can certainly look to Jesus without faith, without faith and study, as you study the thought and the life of a dead man. The student would read the Gospels, then to try to reconstruct an image of Jesus will soon read: "Why look among the dead is alive?" (Luke 24.5). It should then recognize that they are alien to the perspective of the Gospels, which is a perspective believer.
17) Socrates also died, but people admire him for his wisdom, without the need to believe in him. We could not do the same with Jesus?
If Jesus is not risen, his claims would not a wise philosopher, but a megalomaniac. The priests in Jerusalem have understood this, and condemned as a blasphemer for claiming to be the son of God (cf. Mk 14.61-62, Mt 26:63-64, Lk 22.70).
18) Even Socrates was condemned to death for his teaching.
True, but Socrates saw the body the prison of the soul, and hailed the death as a liberation. The resurrection was not interested. None of the disciples of Socrates jumped to mind to say that he was resurrected and appeared to them.
19) and the apocryphal gospels?
The apocryphal gospels are written very different. They share the characteristic of being "apocryphal", a Greek word meaning "hidden." Their content has never been publicly recognized with the faith professed by the people of God
20) What is the difference We are among the apocryphal gospels?
Some are purely fictitious stories, trying to fill the spaces left empty by the story of the canonical Gospels, by multiplying the extraordinary events. Some are outrageous, others are devotees. The intention is of little importance: it is still the literature of fiction, easily recognizable as such.
21) There are apocryphal gospels less imaginative?
Yes, there are those with an image of Jesus that contradicts the one preached by the apostles and contained in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Most of these writings are late (in the third century onwards), some are older. So, for example, the so-called Gospel of Thomas, which seems the most ancient apocryphal gospel, because it was found a manuscript of the second century.
22) If it is so old, because the Church has not accepted?
antiquity is not enough because the text is accepted by the Church. Should not comply with the Easter proclamation and faith publicly professed by the apostles. The Gospel of Thomas claims to deliver a hidden teachings of Jesus, revealed only a few, and clearly different from that taught by Jesus and the apostles. It is a Gnostic writing, that basically is not even really a gospel.
23) Why is the Gospel of Thomas is not really a gospel?
Because the gospel is the announcement of an event: Jesus taught that God is merciful Father, but then had the courage to confirm his teaching by giving their lives: nailed to the cross, entrusted to Father's last breath ( Lk 23:46). The third day he rose again and appeared to the apostles. The Gospel of Thomas does not tell any event: it contains only speeches. Death and resurrection of Jesus are not told. It should not surprise that Christians who recognized in the public teaching of the apostles could not accept this Gnostic doctrine.
24) What are the Gnostic writings?
texts are expecting salvation from knowledge (gnosis in greek). For salvation no matter what Jesus did, or what makes a Christian. Decisive is only the knowledge of the secret doctrine.
25) How is the diagnosis conceives of salvation?
The man was a divine spark embroiled in the matter. To save themselves must discover its true nature, and thus rid the body size.
26) There are other differences between the canonical Gospels and the apocryphal?
In the four Gospels, Jesus is recognized as the Son of God who created the heavens and the earth. There are apocryphal gospels according to which the world is created by a god who is not the Father of Jesus, and that is necessarily good. It follows that earthly realities are not redeemable.
27) There are consequences in moral conduct? If Yes
are only ideas and not the facts, the conduct is irrelevant. If God the Father created the world of bodies, you can also save by killing or committing adultery, as long as you are aware that these actions are attributable to the body, and not to the divine spark in us.
