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The Four Gospels

Commentary on the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament Volume I

Holy Trinity Publications

The Coming into the World of the Lord Jesus Christ

(Luke 1:1–4; John 20:31)

One may consider the introduction to the entire four-Gospel corpus to be the first four verses of the first chapter of the Gospel according to Luke, in which the Evangelist speaks of his careful investigation of all the eyewitness accounts and the purpose of writing the Gospel in the first place: that everyone may know the firm foundation of the Christian teaching. St John also adds: "that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name" (John 20:31).

Thus, St Luke began to write his Gospel because there were already several similar accounts written that were not sufficiently authoritative or convincing in their content, and he considered it his duty to write an account of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ that was fully researched, and he considered the words of "eyewitnesses and ministers of the word" in order to uphold the faith of a certain Theophilus, and of course all Christians in general. Since St Luke himself was one of the seventy disciples of Christ, and so could not have been an eyewitness of such events as the birth of John the Baptist, the Annunciation, the birth of Christ, and the meeting of the Lord, he doubtless took a significant part of his Gospel from the words of other eyewitnesses, that is, on the basis of tradition (here we see the importance of tradition, so vehemently denounced by Protestants and other sectarians!). At the same time, it is completely self-evident that the first and most important eyewitness of the early events of the Gospel narrative was the most holy Virgin Mary, about whom St Luke twice mentions, that she treasured the memory of all these events, pondering them in her heart (Luke 2:19, 51).

There can be no doubt that the superiority of Luke's account over all those many written reports that preceded him is in the fact that he wrote only after a great deal of fact checking and in his strict chronological order. The same can be said of the other three Gospels, because two of them (John and Matthew) were written by direct eyewitnesses and "ministers of the Word" (that is, members of the Twelve) and the third, Mark's, was written based on the eyewitness account of one of the nearest disciples of Christ, St Peter.

The purpose indicated by St John is especially vividly seen throughout his own Gospel, which is full of triumphant confirmations of the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, but of course, the other three Gospels have the same purpose as well.

The Pre-Eternal Begetting and the Incarnation of the Son of God (John 1:1–14)

While the Evangelists Matthew and Luke tell of the earthly birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, St John begins his Gospel with a summary of the teaching on His pre-eternal begetting and Incarnation, as the only begotten Son of God. The first three Evangelists begin their accounts with events thanks to which the kingdom of God had its beginning within time and space, but St John, like an eagle, rises up to the pre-eternal foundation of this kingdom, contemplating the eternal being of the One Who only in the latter days (Heb 1:1) became man.

The second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God, he names "the Word." It is important to know and remember that this "Word" (logos in Greek) means not only a word already uttered (as in English and Russian) but also the "thought, wisdom, intelligence" expressed by a given word. Thus, by calling the Son of God "the Word," St John is identifying Him with the "Wisdom" of God (Luke 11:49; Matt 23:34). The holy Apostle Paul also calls Christ "The Wisdom of God" (1 Cor 1:24). This teaching on the wisdom of God effectively identifies Christ as the Wisdom of God in the Old Testament wisdom literature, particularly the book of Proverbs (compare the incredible passage in Prov 8:22–30). Considering this, it is strange to insist, as some do, that St John took his teaching on the Logos from Plato and his followers (such as Philo). St John is writing about something that was well-known already in the Old Testament, something he was taught, as the beloved disciple, by his divine Teacher and the Holy Spirit.

"In the beginning was the Word" means that the Word is coeternal with God. Later in the sentence, St John explains that this Word is not separate from God in terms of its being, and that it is consequently one in essence with God, and, finally, he openly calls the Word "God" ("and the Word was God"). Here, the word "God" in Greek is used without the article, and this was used by the Arians and Origen as proof that the Word was not as divine as God the Father. This, however, was a misunderstanding. In fact, the lack of an article actually proves the theological axiom that the Persons of the Holy Trinity should not be confused. The article, in Greek, indicates that the subject of the sentence is identical with the subject that was spoken of previously. Thus, if St John, when speaking of the Word being God, had used an article, then he would have written a theological falsehood — that the Word is equivalent to God the Father. Thus, when he speaks of the Word, the Evangelist calls him merely theos, not ho theos, indicating thus that He is divine, but underlining at the same time that the Word has its own hypostasis, and is in no way to be confused with the hypostasis of God the Father.

As Blessed Theophylact mentions, St John calls the Son of God "the Word," not "the Son," in order to avoid thinking, incorrectly, of the begetting of the Son of God in carnal and passionate terms. "This is why he calls him 'Word,' so that you may know, that as a word is born of the mind without passion, so the Son is begotten of the Father without passion."

"All things were made through Him" does not mean that the Word was merely an instrument in the creation of the world, but that the world came from the First Principle and Cause for all creation (as well as God the Word), God the Father, through the Son, Who of Himself is the source of being for everything that came to be, with the exception of Himself and other Persons of the Godhead.

"In Him was life" — here the word "life" does not presuppose existence in the way we usually mean it, but rather the "spiritual life" that inspires all rational creatures to strive toward the Author of their existence, God. This spiritual life is given only by communion and unity with the hypostatic Word of God.

Thus, the Word is the source of true spiritual life for rational creation.

"And the life was the light of men" — this spiritual life that comes from the Word of God illumines the person with a complete, perfect knowledge.

"And the light shines in the darkness" — the Word Who gives mankind the light of true knowledge, does not cease to guide mankind even in the darkness of sin, but the darkness did not apprehend it, that is, people who stubbornly continue in sin prefer to remain in the darkness of spiritual blindness ("and the darkness did not comprehend it").

Then the Word undertook extraordinary measures to illumine those who remain in the darkness of sin with the light of His divinity. He sent John the Baptist, and, finally, Himself became flesh.

"There was a man ... whose name was John." In the Greek, "was" in this case is egeneto, not ên, the verb used to describe the existence of the Word. In other words, John "came into existence," was born within time, and is not eternal, as is the Word.

"He was not that Light" — John was not the self-existing light, but he shone only with a reflected light of that One True Light, Who only Himself "gives light to every man coming into the world."

The world did not comprehend the Light, even though it takes its very existence from Him. "He came to His own" means that He came to the chosen nation of Israel, but "His own did not receive Him," that is, they rejected Him, though not all of them, of course.

"But as many as received Him" with faith and love, "to them He gave the right to become children of God." He gave them the chance of adoption to God, that is, he gave them the beginning of a new spiritual life, which also begins with birth; not a physical birth, but one from God, from the power on High.

"And the Word became flesh" — by "flesh" one must understand not only a human body, but the full man, as the word "flesh" is often used in the Holy Scriptures (Matt 24:22). In other words, the Word became a full and complete human being without, at the same time, ceasing to be God, "and dwelt among us ... full of grace and truth." "Grace" indicates the goodness of God as well as the gifts of this goodness that open the way to the new spiritual life, that is, the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Word, dwelling with us, was also full of truth. In other words, He had complete knowledge of everything that has to do with the spiritual world and the spiritual life.

"And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father." The apostles truly did see His glory in the transfiguration, resurrection, and ascension, and in the glory of His teachings, miracles, deeds of love, and willful self-abasement. "As the only begotten of the Father," because only He is the Son of God in essence, according to His divine nature; these words indicate His limitless preeminence over the sons of God by grace, of whom we have spoken above.

The Conception of the Forerunner of Christ, John (Luke 1:1–25)

St Luke tells of the appearance of an angel to the priest Zacharias during his service in the temple. The angel announced the birth of his son John, who would become great in the sight of the Lord, and struck Zacharias dumb for his lack of faith. This passage also tells of St John's conception.

King Herod, who is mentioned in this passage, was by birth an Idumean, son of Antipater, who became the leader of Judea during the time of John Hyrcanus II, the last Maccabee ruler. Herod received his title of "king" from the Romans. Although he was a proselyte, the Jews did not consider him one of their own, and his reign was just that "departure of the scepter of Judah," after which the Messiah (Shiloh) was supposed to appear (compare the prophecy in Gen 49:10).

The priests were divided by David into twenty-four shifts, groups, or companies, and the head of one of these was the priest Abia. To this shift belonged Zacharias. His wife Elizabeth also came from a priestly family. Even though both of them were truly righteous, they were childless, which among the Jews was considered God's punishment for sins. Each group served in the temple twice a year, one week at a time, and the priests divided their duties among each other by casting lots. It fell to Zacharias to perform the censing, which is why he entered the second part of the Jerusalem temple, called the sanctuary, where the incense-burning altar stood, while all the people stood at prayer in their appointed places in the open-air courts.

Having entered the sanctuary, Zacharias saw the angel and he became deathly afraid, maybe because Jewish custom had it that the appearance of an angel was the harbinger of an imminent death. The angel calmed him down, saying that his prayer had been heard, and his wife would give birth to a son, who would be "great in the sight of the Lord." It is difficult to imagine that righteous Zacharias would have been praying at that moment about God granting him a son since he and his wife were already very old, and since that moment was a very solemn one in the temple service. Evidently, as one of the few exemplary people of that time, he was fervently praying to God for the quick coming of the kingdom of the Messiah, and that prayer was the one to which the angel referred. And thus, his prayer received a great reward — not only was their bitter barrenness removed, but his son would be the forerunner of the Messiah, whose coming he so passionately desired. His son would surpass all others with his unusually strict asceticism and would be filled with special gifts of the Holy Spirit from his very birth. He would have the responsibility of preparing the Hebrew people for the coming of the Messiah, which he would do through his preaching on repentance and conversion of the sons of Israel, who had a formal reverence for the Lord without dedicating their hearts and lives to Him. For this, he would be given the power and spirit of the prophet Elijah, whom he would resemble with his fiery zeal, strict ascetical life, preaching of repentance, and rebuking of ungodliness. He would have to recall the Jews from the abyss of their moral fall, return to the hearts of parents their love for their children, and confirm in a righteous mind-set all those who acted contrary to the laws of the Lord.

Zacharias could not believe the angel, since he and his wife were too old to hope for a son, and he asked the angel for a sign as proof of his words. In order to dispel the doubts of Zacharias, the angel revealed his name. He was Gabriel, which means "the power of God," the one who revealed the time of the coming of the Messiah in weeks to Daniel the Prophet (Dan 9:21–27). For his lack of faith, Zacharias was punished with muteness, and apparently deafness as well, since others later communicated with him through signs. Usually, the ritual censing took a relatively short time, and the assembled people were wondering at Zacharias's tardiness, but they understood that he had experienced a vision when he began to communicate using only signs. It is amazing that the dumb Zacharias did not abandon his shift, but continued to serve until its end. After his return, his wife Elizabeth did actually conceive, but concealed this fact for five months, fearing that people would not believe her and would ridicule her. She herself rejoiced and thanked God for removing her shame. The conception of St John the Baptist is celebrated as a church feast on September 23.

The Annunciation to the Most Holy Virgin Mary (Luke 1:26–38)

In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, the archangel Gabriel was sent to the small town of Nazareth, which was found in the tribe of Zebulun in the southern part of Galilee, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, who was named Mary. The Evangelist does not call her a "virgin who was married," but "a virgin betrothed to a man." This means that the most holy Virgin Mary was formally considered the wife of Joseph (as far as public opinion and the law were concerned), but in reality she was not his wife. Having lost her parents early, and having been given away by them to the service of the temple, she could not return to them when she turned fourteen, when she could no longer stay within the temple according to the law. Her only option was to marry. When the high priest and the other priests found out that she had given an oath of virginity, and not desiring that she remain without protection, they formally betrothed her to her relative, the eighty-year-old Joseph, known to them all for his righteous life, who had a large family from his first marriage (Matt 13:55–56) and was a carpenter by trade.

When the angel entered into the room where the Virgin Mary was, he called her "full of the grace" of God (v. 28), that is, she was full of a special love and benevolence from God, a special help from God, which is always found in saints and in those who do great deeds. The words of the angel disturbed Mary by their unexpectedness, and she began to think of their deeper significance. Having consoled her, he told her she would soon give birth to a Son, Who would be great, not like John, but much greater, because not only will He be filled with grace-filled gifts of God, but will Himself be the "Son of the Highest." Why did the angel say that "the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob"? Because the monarchy of the Old Testament had as its purpose the preparation of the people for the eternal kingdom of Christ, to be gradually transformed into it. Consequently, the kingship of David, a monarchy in which the kings were chosen by God Himself, a political system intended to be guided by the laws of God, a society in which all forms of civil life were imbued with the idea of service to God, was inextricably linked with the New Testament kingdom of God.

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Excerpted from The Four Gospels by Averky (Taushev), Nicholas Kotar. Copyright © 2015 Holy Trinity Monastery. Excerpted by permission of Holy Trinity Publications.
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