Dr. Guthrie's "New Testament Introduction:" (1) Gospels

Guthrie, Donald. New Testament Introduction. Downers Grove, IL: Inter-varsity Press, 1978.

Prof. Donald Guthrie holds the B.D., M.Th., and Ph.D. This volume is 1058 pages. The 47-page bibliography—itself—is worth the price and effort to get. The bibliography will keep the most scholarly busy for years.  It is serviceable for the serious investigator, laymen or collegians. It is serviceable for preliminary graduate studies. It is an excellent tool of review and summary for the scholar. As noted, the bibliography will keep the NT scholar busy for years and years.  If we had to recommend one NTI, this would be it.

Available at: http://www.amazon.com/Testament-Introduction-Master-Reference-Collection/dp/0830814027/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388787738&sr=8-1&keywords=donald+guthrie+new+testament+introduction

Contents

1. The Gospels
2. Matthew’s Gospel
3. Mark’s Gospel
4. Luke’s Gospel
5. The Synoptic Problem
6. Form Criticism and Its Developments
7. Towards a Solution
8. John’s Gospel
9. The Acts of the Apostles
10. Paul, the Man Behind the Letters
11. The Epistle to the Romans
12. The Corinthian Letters
13. The Epistle to the Galatians
14. The Captivity Epistles
15. The Epistle to the Ephesians
16. The Epistle to the Philippians
17. The Epistle to the Colossians
18. The Thessalonian Epistles
19. The Pastoral Epistles
20. The Epistle to Philemon
21. The Collection of Paul’s Epistles

Appendix A: Paul and His Sources
Appendix B: The Chronology of the Life of Paul
Appendix C: Epistolary Pseudepigraphy

22. The Epistle to the Hebrews
23. The Epistle of James
24. The First Epistle of Peter
25. The Second Epistle of Peter
26. The Johannine Epistles
27. The Epistle of Jude
28. The Book of Revelation

General Bibliography
Classified Bibliography
Author Index
Subject Index

Chapter One: The Gospels, 13-20

Obviously, the NT and the Gospels are of interest to Christian people. The Gospels are our principal sources for the authoritative facts of Christ’s life. Think of the Church without the Gospels? The subject of the inquiry will be the documents themselves—in the lead and with the emphasis, not the unidentified sources postulated by creative, inventive and fevered 19th-20th century inventors, e.g. Q, M, L, etc., in the documentary tradition of source-critical or form-critical inquiries. Yet, those are interesting, but Guthrie’s focus will retain dominance on the product: the canonical Gospels.

Some witnesses from the early church:

• Irenaeus—four Gospels like the four winds

• Clement of Alexandria—while he uses the Gospel of the Egyptians, he carefully distinguishes it in origin and authority from the 4 canonical Gospels.

• Tertullian—stressed the authority of the 4 Gospels due to apostolic origins

• Tatian’s Harmony uses the 4 Gospels

• Justin Martyn—the church services at Rome were largely occupied with reading “apostolic memoirs” termed the Gospels

• Clement of Rome and Ignatius make allusions to the Gospels

• Papias—Mark was Peter’s interpreter and Matthew wrote his Gospel in Hebrew (Aramaic)