The Significance of the Gospels.

All four Gospels harmoniously narrate the life and teachings of Christ the Savior, His

miracles, His sufferings on the Cross, His death and burial, His glorious resurrection from

death and ascension into heaven. Mutually supplementing and clarifying each other, they

represent a single, whole book, without contradictions or variances in essentials and fundamentals.

The mysterious chariot seen by the prophet Ezekiel at the river Chebar (Ezekiel 1:1-

28), with four creatures, whose likenesses were reminiscent of a man, a lion, an ox and an

eagle, serves as a symbol for the four Gospels. These likenesses, taken separately, became

emblems for the evangelists. Beginning with the 5th century, Christian art represents Matthew

with a man or angel, Mark with a lion, Luke with an ox, and John with an eagle.

Besides our four Gospels, there were up to 50 other similar writings during the first

centuries which referred to themselves also as “gospels” and claimed to be of Apostolic

origin. The Church designated these as apocryphal — that is, non-credible, repudiated books.

These books contain distorted and dubious narratives. Such apocryphal gospels include: “the

first gospel of Jacob,” “the story of Joseph the carpenter,” “the gospel of Thomas,” “the

gospel of Nicodemus,” and others. In these “gospels” one finds most of the oldest legends

relating the childhood and youth of Jesus Christ.