The word "gospel" translates the Greek euangelion, which literally means "good news." The term first appears in Christian literature in the letters of Paul, where it already has a technical sense, referring to the message about the death, resurrection, and return of Jesus Christ (e.g., 1 Cor 15:1-5). While two of the New Testament gospels use the word "gospel" (it is missing in Luke and John), they use it to indicate not the written works themselves, but rather the message preached either by Jesus (in Matthew) or about him (in Mark). Not until the middle of the second century are documents about the words and deeds of Jesus called gospels.The New Testament gospels are complex works of literature that draw on a variety of oral and written sources of tradition, some from Jesus and some about him, such as miracle stories, collections of his parables and sayings, traditions about his birth and childhood, and stories about his death and resurrection. These different formats for preserving and transmitting Jesus traditions influenced the shape of the New Testament narrative gospels. But in addition, they each crystallized into distinct literary works in their own right, also called gospels, not all of which took the form of narratives.
The Complete Gospels presents examples of these different gospel forms. Besides the four New Testament gospels, there is what may be called a miracle gospel (the Signs Gospel), infancy gospels (the Infancy Gospels of Thomasand James), and a passion gospel (Gospel of Peter). There are sayings gospels:"Q (the shorthand designation for the Synoptic Sayings Source), the Gospelsof Thomas and Mary, the Secret Book of James, and the Dialogue of theSavior. Also included are fragments of gospels whose full character and ancient titles are unknown (the Gospels of the Hebrews, Nazoreans, and Ebionites, the Egerton Gospel and the Oxyrhynchus Gospels 840 and 1224) an esoteric edition of a New Testament gospel (Secret Gospel of Mark), and some free-floating Jesus traditions (our so-called Orphan Sayings and Stories).
What records have survived?
No manuscripts from the hands of the original authors of the gospels survive. All of our gospels, then, come to us at several removes from their authors. Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John are preserved in about 3,500 manuscripts. Best represented among these manuscripts is the Gospel of John, which was a favorite in the ancient Christian community as it is in modern time Greek texts behind our English translation is a reconstruction produced by patient and exacting comparison of thousands of differences in wording among the numerous copies. Most of the other gospels, however, come to us from the ancient world on the most meager of surviving records.
Of the sixteen other gospels in this volume, only two are amply represented by surviving manuscripts. They are the two infancy gospels, Thomas and James. The number of extant copies witnesses to the popularity of stories about the birth of Mary, Jesus, and the wondrous activities of the young Jesus.
Seven of our gospels are known to us on the basis of a single precious manuscript each: Gospel of Peter, Secret Book of James, Dialogue of the Savior, the Egerton Gospel, Secret Gospel of Mark, and the Oxyrhynchusn Gospels 840 and 1224. The Gospel of Thomas is preserved in full form only in Coptic, but it has also survived in three important Greek fragments, which attest to the fact that it was originally written in Greek. The Gospel of Mary is known in both Coptic and Greek fragments.
Some of our gospels are not even preserved in their original language. All but one of them originally were written in Greek, but the Gospel of Thomas (except for the Greek fragments), the Secret Book of James, and the Dialogue of the Savior are known to us only in Coptic translation. Four gospels only in fragmentary form: Gospel of Peter, the Egerton Gospel, and Oxyrhynchus Gospels 840 and 1224. One gospel (Dialogue of the Savior) has numerous gaps in the manuscript and another one (Gospel of Mary) is missing about half of its pages. The Gospels of the Hebrews, Ebionites, and Nazoreans are preserved only in fragments, in the writings of the early Christian authors who quoted from them. The Secret Gospel of Mark is available only in a transcription made by an l8th-century scholar.
The other two gospels in this volume (the Signs Gospel and Q) are not even "texts" in the strict sense, since we have no manuscript copies of them at all. They have been reconstructed by being isolated from the larger texts in which they are embedded: the Signs Gospel from John, and Q from Matthew and Luke.
Complete Gospels. Copyright © by Robert J. Miller. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.
