50 Fun Facts About The Four Gospels

Matthew's Gospel never counts the Magi, so the traditional three comes from the number of what?

Gifts set the number: gold, frankincense and myrrh made three, so tradition settled on three visitors. In Syriac Christianity the Magi often number twelve instead.

The word 'gospel' comes from the Old English 'godspel', a translation of a term meaning what?

Good news is the literal sense, from 'god' (good) and 'spel' (story, message). The term first meant the Christian message itself and only later the books that told it.

Apart from the resurrection, which miracle of Jesus is the only one recorded in all four Gospels?

Feeding the five thousand with five loaves and two fish is told by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John alike. Only John says the food was supplied by a boy in the crowd.

Which teaching form, used constantly by Jesus in Matthew, Mark and Luke, is all but absent from John?

Parables make up about a third of Jesus's recorded teaching, yet most scholars find none in John. That Gospel gives him long speeches about himself instead of short stories about farmers and kings.

Venice's winged emblem is the traditional symbol of the Gospel writer Mark, shown as which animal?

Lion, usually winged, is Mark's emblem, and Venice took it up after carrying off the saint's remains from Alexandria in 828. Matthew is shown as a man, Luke as an ox and John as an eagle.

All four Gospels say Peter denied knowing Jesus three times before which bird was heard?

A rooster crowing is the signal in all four Gospels, just as Jesus had predicted earlier that night when Peter insisted he would stand by him.

Matthew is the only Gospel to name the price Judas was paid to betray Jesus: thirty pieces of what?

Silver, thirty pieces of it, is also the price the book of Exodus sets on a slave. Mark and Luke report the deal but mention no sum.

The shortest verse in the King James Bible, found in John chapter 11, says only that Jesus did what?

Wept: the whole verse is two words in English, set as Jesus meets the grieving sisters of a dead friend. In the original language it is not the shortest verse at all.

Only John's Gospel tells of Jesus raising which friend, the brother of Martha, from his tomb?

Lazarus had been in his tomb at Bethany for four days when Jesus called him out. In John's telling it is this miracle, more than any teaching, that triggers Jesus's arrest.

Only Matthew and Luke tell of Jesus's birth, and both Gospels set it in which town?

Bethlehem is the birthplace in both, but the routes differ: Matthew implies the family already lives there, while Luke has them travel from Nazareth and go straight back.

Matthew, Mark and Luke tell the story of Jesus so alike that scholars group them under which name?

Synoptic Gospels are books that can be 'seen together': set side by side, the three match in content, order and often wording. John follows a quite different outline.

Matthew's Gospel gathers the Golden Rule and 'turn the other cheek' into which long speech by Jesus?

The Sermon on the Mount fills chapters 5 to 7 of Matthew. Luke has a shorter version of the same teaching, but sets it on level ground after Jesus has come down the mountain.

In all four Gospels, the crowd before Pontius Pilate wants which prisoner freed instead of Jesus?

Barabbas is described by Mark and Luke as a rebel who had committed murder during a riot. His name means 'son of the father', an irony beside Jesus's own title.

Which bishop of Hierapolis left the oldest surviving claim that Mark wrote down Peter's preaching?

Papias, quoting an elder, called Mark the interpreter of Peter, who wrote accurately but not in order. The historian Eusebius later judged him a learned collector of traditions but a poor interpreter of them.

Like the rest of the New Testament, all four Gospels were first written down in which language?

Greek, in its everyday Koine form, is the language of all four Gospels. Jesus taught mainly in Aramaic, so nearly every saying in them is already a translation.

Which of Jesus's stories in Luke's Gospel has a despised foreigner rescue a man beaten by robbers?

The Good Samaritan stops to help after a priest and a Levite have both walked past. Jesus tells the story to a lawyer who has asked him who counts as a neighbour.

In Matthew, Mark and Luke, Roman soldiers force which passer-by to carry the cross for Jesus?

Simon of Cyrene came from a city in what is now Libya. John never mentions him, and has Jesus go out to the place of execution bearing the cross himself.

Luke's Gospel dates the census at the birth of Jesus to the term of which Roman governor of Syria?

Quirinius did hold a census, but historians date it to AD 6, years after the death of King Herod, under whom Matthew and Luke both set the birth. The gap is a famous puzzle.

Which letter do scholars give the lost sayings collection thought to lie behind Matthew and Luke?

Q comes from Quelle, the German for 'source'. No manuscript of it has ever been found: its existence is inferred from sayings Matthew and Luke have in common that Mark lacks.

In the Prodigal Son story, found only in Luke, the ruined son ends up tending which animals?

Pigs are his charge as a hired hand, a degrading job, and he is hungry enough to envy them the carob pods they eat. Only then does he decide to go home to his father.

Matthew, Mark and John call the crucifixion site Golgotha, meaning the place of the what?

Skull in Latin is calvaria, which is why English also knows the site as Calvary. It lay just outside the walls of Roman Jerusalem.

Mark's Gospel briefly mentions a young man who escapes at Jesus's arrest by leaving behind what?

His linen cloth was all he had on, so he runs off naked. Readers since ancient times have guessed at who he was, and one old proposal is the writer Mark himself.

Luke's Gospel opens with a preface addressed to which named reader, probably the author's patron?

Theophilus means 'lover of God', so the name could refer to any Christian reader. Most interpreters still take him for a real convert who backed the writing of the book.

Only John tells of which disciple refusing to believe Jesus had risen until he saw the wounds?

Thomas gave English a phrase for any stubborn sceptic. John never says he actually touched the wounds: once Jesus appears, the doubter simply declares his faith.

All four Gospels agree that which follower asked Pontius Pilate for Jesus's body and buried it?

Joseph of Arimathea is a rich disciple in Matthew and a respected council member in Mark. Medieval legend later made him the first keeper of the Holy Grail.

Luke's Gospel gives Mary a song of praise during her visit to Elizabeth, known by which Latin name?

The Magnificat is named from the Latin for 'magnifies', the verb in its opening line about the soul and the Lord. It is one of four hymns found only in Luke's first chapters.

The New Testament letter to the Colossians gives the Gospel writer Luke which profession?

Physician is how Colossians describes Luke, a companion of Paul. That one word made him the patron saint of doctors, and tradition adds artists, butchers and brewers.

John's Gospel sets Jesus's first miracle, turning water into wine, at a wedding in which village?

Cana hosts the first of the seven 'signs' around which John builds his book. None of the other three Gospels mentions the wedding at all.

Among the women at the cross and tomb of Jesus, who is the only one named in all four Gospels?

Mary Magdalene is in every account, and John has her come to the tomb alone. Her place as first witness later earned her the title 'Apostle to the Apostles'.

Luke's Gospel begins the story of Jesus's birth with a census ordered by which Roman emperor?

Augustus, says Luke, decreed that all the world should be registered. Historians know of no single empire-wide count under him, which keeps the verse much debated.

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are known together as the Four what?

Evangelists is the shared title, and it is not the same as apostles: by tradition only Matthew and John belonged to the Twelve, while Mark and Luke were companions of apostles.

In John's Gospel, which Pharisee and council member comes to see Jesus secretly by night?

Nicodemus is named only by John. Their night talk is the source of the phrase 'born again', and he returns at the end with spices to help prepare the body of Jesus for burial.

In Luke's Gospel, two disciples fail to recognise the risen Jesus on the road to which village?

Emmaus is where their eyes are opened, at supper, in the moment the stranger breaks the bread. Only one of the pair, Cleopas, is given a name.

In Matthew, Mark and Luke, which two Old Testament figures appear beside Jesus at the Transfiguration?

Moses and Elijah are widely read as standing for the Law and the Prophets. Peter, James and John are the only disciples taken up the mountain to see it.

Mark and Luke say 'kingdom of God', but Matthew's Gospel usually swaps the last word for what?

Heaven replaces the divine name in Matthew, following the Jewish custom of not speaking that name aloud. It is one clue that the book was written for Jewish readers.

John's Gospel has no ritual of bread and wine at the Last Supper; instead Jesus does what for his disciples?

Jesus washes their feet, over Peter's protests, and tells them to do the same for one another. Many churches still re-enact the scene on the Thursday before Easter.

The earliest copies of Mark's Gospel end abruptly, with the women at the tomb silent and what?

Afraid is the note Mark ends on: the women flee and say nothing to anyone. The last twelve verses printed in most Bibles are missing from the two oldest complete copies.

Mark's Gospel says Jesus nicknamed the brothers James and John 'Boanerges', meaning sons of what?

Thunder fits the brothers' temper: in another story they want to call down fire on a town that would not welcome Jesus, and he rebukes them for it.

Which second-century bishop of Lyon argued there must be exactly four Gospels, like the four winds?

Irenaeus is the earliest surviving writer to treat all four as essential. Around 180 he argued that four zones of the world and four winds called for four pillars of the Church.

In Luke's Gospel, angels announce the birth of Jesus to which group?

Shepherds appear only in Luke and the Magi only in Matthew, so the crowded stable of Christmas cards is a blend of two separate accounts.

Only Luke's Gospel has a criminal crucified beside Jesus ask to be remembered and be promised what?

Paradise, that very day, is what Jesus promises him. Matthew and Mark say both criminals mocked Jesus, and later tradition gave the repentant one the name Dismas.

Matthew traces Jesus's ancestry back to Abraham, but Luke's Gospel carries the line back to whom?

Adam ends Luke's list, which runs backwards from Jesus. Matthew stops at the father of the Jewish people, while Luke presses on to the father of the whole human race.

The Syrian writer Tatian wove all four Gospels into one continuous narrative known by which name?

The Diatessaron was the standard Gospel text in some Syriac-speaking churches from the late 2nd century to the 5th, until the four separate books replaced it.

Only Matthew's Gospel tells of Joseph fleeing with Mary and the infant Jesus to which country?

Egypt is the refuge after an angel warns Joseph in a dream that King Herod wants the child dead. Luke's version has the family go straight home to Nazareth instead.

In all four Gospels, a sword drawn at Jesus's arrest cuts off which part of a servant's body?

An ear, and only Luke says Jesus healed it on the spot. John alone names both men: the swordsman was Peter and the wounded servant was called Malchus.

Which dramatic act opens Jesus's ministry in John but comes in his final week in the other Gospels?

Cleansing the Temple of its traders comes as early as chapter 2 in John. Augustine was among the early writers who settled the clash by concluding that Jesus must have done it twice.

Which second-century teacher, branded a heretic, accepted only one Gospel, a shortened Luke?

Marcion paired his single Gospel with ten letters of Paul, the earliest known list of Christian scriptures. It is often credited with spurring other churches to settle a canon of their own.

In Luke's Gospel, which named angel tells Mary that she will give birth to Jesus?

Gabriel brings the news to Mary in Luke. Matthew tells it from the other parent's side: an unnamed angel speaks to Joseph, and only in a dream.

In John's Gospel, which high priest argues that it is better for one man to die than a whole nation?

Caiaphas held office for about eighteen years, longer than any other high priest of New Testament times, which suggests he worked smoothly with the Roman governors.

John's Gospel never names its key witness, calling him only 'the disciple whom Jesus' did what?

Loved: the phrase belongs to John's Gospel alone and appears nowhere else in the New Testament. Church tradition has long identified this unnamed disciple with John himself.