WHY CALLED SYNOPTIC

 WHY CALLED SYNOPTIC

The word gospel is derived from the two Anglo – Saxon words God, Meaning good, and spell, meaning tidings or history. The four writers of the Gospels are called evangelists from a Greek word meaning bringer of good tidings. The first three Gospels Matthews, Mark, and Luke are called the synoptic Gospels because, unlike John, they give a synopsis of Christ’s life. The word synopsis is from the two Greek words meaning a view together, a collective view. So these three Gospels may be viewed together.

The synoptic Gospels are striking in their similarities. They are equally striking in their differences. The synoptic narrate His ministry chiefly in Galilee, but John’s Gospel stands in a class by itself. He tells of Christ’s ministry in Judea. The Synoptic narrates his miracles, parables, and addresses to the multitudes; John presents his deeper and more abstract discourse, His conversations, and prayers. The three portray Christ in action; john portrays him in meditation and communication.

He is there! The promised one has come! The one whom all the prophets have foretold, Jesus Christ, the lord.

Every prophet in the Old Testament assured God’s chosen people again and again that a messiah should come who would be the kind of the Jews. They, therefore, looked forward with passionate longing and patriotism to the coming of that King on pomp and power.

Expect to find in the gospels Him of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus (John 1.45) but know that you will find him infinitely more beautiful in person than any prophet’s vision of Him.

We read in Isaiah 7.14: therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel [God with Us]. This is just the One that the evangelists tell us about. The Gospels present Jesus in our midst. John says, the word was made flesh and dwelt among us (John 1.14). Think of the Gospels are the center of the whole Bible. All that the prophet has said leads us to our Lord’s earthly life and work, and all that follows in the Epistles proceeds from them. The Gospels are the Source.

The Gospels tell us WHEN and HOW Christ came.

The Epistles tell us WHY and FOR WHAT Christ came.

Notice where the four Gospels are placed. They stand at the close of the Old Testament and before the Epistles.