What is a ‘Gospel’? Recent Studies in the Gospel Genre

Abstract

This article is a brief review of two main paths of biblical scholarship with respect to the ‘gospel’ genre. The NT Gospels appear to be similar to other ancient literature in some ways, yet distinctive enough in content, form, theology and purpose to set them apart from other literature. The analogical approach shows how the Gospels were written in a form similar to other written documents of that time and culture. In contrast, the derivational approach attempts to show that the Gospels are unique and exclusive in all of literature. While the search for the ‘historical Jesus’ is not over, literary criticism has now set the Gospels within the concept of ‘story’, with all its literary implications. Scholars have suggested that the ‘Gospel of Mark’ is the first of its kind, becoming the foundational paradigm of the Gospel genre. Further, the discovery of ancient ‘apocryphal gospels’ has encouraged scholars to compare the NT Gospels to the non-canonical documents.The challenge of clearly identifying the ‘Gospel genre’ continues, as scholars try to understand the nature of both canonical and non-canonical stories of Jesus.