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    ccacher1's Avatar
    ccacher1 Posts: 1, Reputation: 1
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    #1

    Apr 2, 2009, 01:42 PM
    Compare and contrast the Gospel of Luke and John
    I'd like to hear people's ideas comparing the two Gospels.
    arcura's Avatar
    arcura Posts: 3,773, Reputation: 191
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    #2

    Apr 2, 2009, 11:38 PM
    ccacher1,
    To do a really good job of doing what you are asking for would take thousands of words.
    But here is a good synopsis of them that comes from the Jerusalem Bible.
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    Luke's gospel is very warm and human, concentrating on Jesus' mercy and forgiveness, his call especially to the poor and underprivileged, inviting both Jew and gentile to salvation.
    Luke writes a more sophisticated Greek than the other evangelists, giving the impression that he is providing a history for the civilised Greek reader.
    Perhaps for this reason much of his special material consists of teaching on points of individual morality, especially the danger of material possessions and misuse of wealth. Luke also brings out the importance of individual spiritual qualities, especially prayer, joy and praise of God, and the essential part played by the Holy Spirit in the Christian life.
    But in spite of his attention to Greek readers, Luke is very much aware that Jesus is the completion of the OT: the stories of Jesus' infancy, especially, are shot through with reminiscences of the OT.
    Many of these emphases occur also in Acts, which once formed the second part of a single two-volume work. The turning-point is Jerusalem, for Luke begins and ends the gospel in Jerusalem, much of Jesus' instruction being brought together in the great final journey up to Jerusalem (section IV); the resurrection appearances are in and around Jerusalem, and it is from Jerusalem that the faith spreads in Acts.
    <><><>
    The Gospel of John
    The first ending to the fourth Gospel (20:31) specifies the book's literary form. It is a "gospel", just as the preaching of the earlier Church was a "gospel"; i.e. it proclaims that Jesus is Messiah and Son of God, and its teaching, based on "signs" that Jesus gave, is to bring the reader to believe in the Messiah and so to attain life.
    The fourth Gospel, therefore, in spite of all indications of its late composition, is not unrelated to the most primitive Christian kergyma, or message, and it preserves both the structure and the chief points of this message, e.g. the Holy Spirit descends, as the Baptist testifies, to point out Jesus as Messiah, 1:31\34; Christ's "glory" is manifested in his work and word, 1:35\12:50; his death, resurrection and subsequent apparitions are described, 13:1\20:20; the apostles are sent out with the gift of the Spirit and the power to forgive sins, 20:21\29.
    The book claims, moreover, to fulfil the condition that (see Ac 1:8k) qualifies a witness as "apostolic": i.e. it offers an (unnamed) eyewitness for its guarantor, "the disciple Jesus loved", who took part in the events of the Passion, see Jn 13:23; 19:26,35; compare 18:15seq. saw the empty tomb, 20:2seq. and the risen Christ, 21:7,20\24, and was perhaps one of the first two disciples of Jesus, 1:35seq.

    There are some features peculiar to the fourth Gospel that mark it off sharply from the Synoptics. In the first place, it is far more concerned than the Synoptics to bring out the significance of the events of Christ's life and of all that he did and said. The things Christ did were "signs": their meaning, hidden at first, could be fully understood only after his glorification, 2:22; 12:16; 13:17.
    The things he said had a deeper meaning not perceived at the time, see 2:20g; it was the business of the Spirit who spoke in the name of the risen Christ, to remind the disciples of what Jesus had said, to deepen their understanding of it, and to "lead" them "into the whole truth", see 14:26r.
    The Gospel according to John looks back on the earthly life of Jesus in the light of this completed understanding.

    In the second place, the author seems to have been influenced to a considerable extent by ideas current in certain sections of Judaism, ideas that are reflected in the Essene documents of Qumran. In this school of thought the great emphasis laid on "knowledge" has given its vocabulary the sort of tinge to be found in later Gnostic literature: e.g. the contrasting pairs "light/darkness", "truth/lies", "angel of light/angel of darkness (Beliar)" which all have a dualist flavour.
    At Qumran, in view of its expectation of an imminent coming of God, a particular stress was laid both on the need for unity and on the necessity for mutual love. All these ideas which recur in the fourth Gospel are characteristic of the Judaeo-Christian milieu in which it must have originated.

    Moreover, this Gospel is far more interested than the Synoptics in worship and sacraments.
    It relates the life of Jesus to the Jewish liturgical year and associates his miracles with the principal feasts; the Temple is often given as the setting both for them and for Christ's discourses.
    Jesus asserts that he himself is the focus of a religion, restored "in spirit and in truth", 4:24, but a religion also which is expressed and realised in the sacraments.
    The dialogue with Nicodemus includes all the essentials of a baptismal instruction, 3:1\21, and the narratives of the man born blind and of the paralytic seem to presuppose the ideas of baptism as light, 9:1\39, and new life 5:1\14; 5:21\24.
    Ch. 6 by itself is a complete collection of teachings on the Eucharist, but the entire Gospel is pervaded by the concept of the Christian Passover, replacing the Jewish Passover, 1:29,36; 2:13; 6:4; 19:36u.
    Jewish purificatory rites, 2:6; 3:25, give way to a purification of the soul by Word, 15:3, and Spirit, 20:22seq.
    In this way the life of Christ is seen as directly related to a living liturgical and sacramental Christianity.

    The fourth Gospel is a complex work; it is related to the earliest Christian preaching, and yet at the same time it gives us the results of a quest, completed under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, for a deeper and more rewarding apprehension of the mystery of Jesus.

    Each of the evangelists has his own approach to Christ's person and mission. For John he is the Word made flesh, come to give life, 1:14, and this, the mystery of the Incarnation, dominates the whole of John's thought.
    He expresses its theology in concrete terms: Jesus is sent; Jesus bears witness. Christ is God's message, he is the Word sent down to earth by God, to whom he must return when his task is complete, see 1:1a.
    This task of the Word is to declare the hidden things of God; and to be witness to all that he has seen and heard from the Father himself, see 3:11e. As credentials God has given him certain works or "signs" to perform; these demand more than human power and prove that he has been sent by the God who is active in him, see 2:11f;
    Through them is glimpsed his glory which will not be revealed fully till the day of his resurrection, see 1:14n, when the Son of man is to be "lifted up" as Isaiah foretold, Is 53:12 (LXX), to return to the Father by way of the cross, see Jn 12:32j, and to resume the glory he had with God "before the world was made", 17:5f,24.
    This is the glory about which the prophets learned through revelation (see 5:27; 12:41; 19:37 and references), and the revealing of this glory is a theophany, or divine self-revelation, that is at once both the culmination and final eclipse of all those other theophanies that had taken place already, whether that given in the act of creation, 1:1, or those given to Moses, 1:17, Jacob, 1:51, Abraham, 8:56, or the prophets.
    The glory of the "Day of Yahweh", see Am 5:18m, is identified with the "Day" of Jesus, Jn 8:56, and more particularly with his Hour, 2:4e, which is the hour of his "lifting up" and of his glorification.
    In that hour is revealed the superhuman majesty of him who was "sent", 8:24g, the majesty of one who came to the world to give life, 3:35t, to all those whose hearts were opened by faith to the saving message he brought, 3:11e.
    For this "salvation" and for this alone the Son was "sent", and in this way his "sending" was the supreme manifestation of the Father's love for the world, 17:6g.
    I hope that helps you.
    Both of those books are amazing works one do by a Jew the other by a Greek physician.
    Some theologians have said that Luke is more Protestant while John is more Catholic in what they teach.
    In fact I heard of a minister who once said that He refused to teach from John and James because they were too much Catholic.
    Peace and kindness,
    Fred.
    jakester's Avatar
    jakester Posts: 582, Reputation: 165
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    #3

    Apr 3, 2009, 08:55 AM

    The Gospel of Luke was written by Luke
    The Gospel of John was written by John

    Awww, come on... let's all have a sense of humor! It's Friday.
    arcura's Avatar
    arcura Posts: 3,773, Reputation: 191
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    #4

    Apr 3, 2009, 08:32 PM
    jakester,
    LOL
    Fred
    Maggie 3's Avatar
    Maggie 3 Posts: 262, Reputation: 41
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    #5

    Apr 3, 2009, 09:33 PM
    CCACHER1:
    This is how it seems to me.Luke is a doctor and you can tell he is compassionate.
    He tells everyone about Jesus' birth and early life and then starts writing about the eartly ministry of Jesus. Luke's gospel tells of many details of Jesus" life that the other
    3 gospels do not mention. Luke presents Jesus as a man of great compassion and strong emotions. Luke also points out Jesus' strong feelings of sympathy towards women, the poor, sinners and the sick and the dying.
    It is believed Luke wrote his gospel a few years before he wrote the Acts of the Apostles
    Around A.D. 63 or 64.

    While reading Luke you notice it shows the human side of Jesus as being the Son of Man, while the gospel of John shows Jesus' divinity as the Son Of God. I think it is very
    Interesting that John's gospel goes back further than the other 3 gospels, when Jesus, as the Word , created the universe. He writes much about believing. John includes a pretty good description of the Upper Room meal and also writes about a few events that led
    Up to the resurrection which proved that Jesus is who He claimed to be... the Son of God.
    It is believed John wrote his gospel between A.D. 80 and 100

    Maggie 3
    arcura's Avatar
    arcura Posts: 3,773, Reputation: 191
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    #6

    Apr 3, 2009, 09:47 PM
    Maggie 3,
    Very well done.
    You covered a lot with that shot post.
    Peace and kindness,
    Fred

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