Four Gospels, Four Voices, One Question | Great Four 马太、马可、路加、约翰 · 一个普通读者眼中的四福音书

四份叙述，一个身影
Four Gospels, Four Voices, One Question

马太、马可、路加、约翰 · 一个普通读者眼中的四福音书
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John · Four Gospels Through the Eyes of a Lay Reader

English

I am not a Christian. This is not a declaration of identity, merely background. Most people who grow up in China first encounter the Bible through literature classes, films, or the leaflets handed out at church gates. The first time I seriously opened the four Gospels, it was out of a simple curiosity: if Jesus was a real person, why did it take four books to record his life?

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. Four names, four texts, one protagonist.

The Gospel of Matthew opens with a long genealogy. From Abraham to David, from David to the Babylonian exile, from exile to Jesus. To readers unfamiliar with the Old Testament, this reads like a tedious census record. But to Jewish readers of the time, it was a declaration: this man—the Messiah they had been waiting for—his lineage could be verified. Matthew’s Jesus is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. He repeatedly writes “this was to fulfill what the prophet had said,” like a lawyer submitting evidence in court.

The Gospel of Mark is entirely different. No genealogy, no birth narrative. Its opening line is “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,” and immediately Jesus appears at the Jordan. The entire book moves with urgency; the word “immediately” appears more than forty times. Mark’s Jesus is a man of action, a suffering servant. He walks silently toward the cross, and his final words are brief enough to be haunting. This is the earliest Gospel, and the most unadorned.

The Gospel of Luke is attributed to a physician, a Gentile. He claims to have “investigated everything from the first,” so his account contains the most detailed birth narrative, the most parables, and a particular concern for the poor, women, and outsiders. Luke’s Jesus is a friend to all, especially to those on the margins.

The Gospel of John was written last, decades after the others. By then, Jesus is no longer a carpenter from Galilee, but “the Word” who “was with God” and “was God.” John’s Jesus speaks of eternal life, light, and truth; his miracles carry symbolic weight. This is the most philosophical, the most abstract of the four.

Four books, four voices, four perspectives.

As I read, I often think: if these four people had witnessed the same car accident, their testimonies would probably differ in just this way. Matthew would recall the license plate number because it matched a prophecy; Mark would remember the crash and the debris flying through the air; Luke would run to help the injured; John would reflect on what the accident meant for the fate of humanity.

None of them is “wrong.” But none of them is “complete.”

This leads to a broader question: can any historical event, any significant figure, ever be exhausted by a single narrative? When the church placed the four Gospels side by side, was it acknowledging this impossibility—or was it trying to piece together a whole from four incomplete parts?

I do not know the answer. I only know that, as an ordinary reader facing four narratives, the most honest response is not to choose which one to believe, but to admit that human beings, perhaps, were never meant to be contained in a single story.

中文

我不是基督徒。这句话不是声明，只是背景。在中国长大的人，大多数对《圣经》的最初印象来自外国文学课、电影，或者教堂门口递传单的人。我第一次认真翻开四福音书，是因为一个简单的好奇：如果耶稣是真实存在过的人，为什么需要四本书记录他？

马太、马可、路加、约翰。四个名字，四份文本，同一个身影。

《马太福音》开头是一份长长的家谱。从亚伯拉罕到大卫，从大卫到被掳巴比伦，从被掳到耶稣。对不熟悉《旧约》的读者来说，这像一份枯燥的户籍档案。但对当时的犹太读者，这是一份声明：这个人 – 你们等候的弥赛亚 – 他的血统经得起查验。马太笔下的耶稣，是旧约预言的兑现者。他反复写道“这就应验了先知的话”，像一个律师在法庭上提交证据。

《马可福音》完全不同。没有家谱，没有出生故事。第一句话就是“神的儿子，耶稣基督福音的起头”，然后耶稣立刻出现在约旦河边。整本书节奏急促，“立刻”这个词出现了四十多次。马可的耶稣是一个行动者，一个受苦的仆人。他沉默地走向十字架，连最后的话都简短得令人心悸。这是最早写成的福音书，也是最朴素的一本。

《路加福音》的作者据称是一位外邦医生。他声称自己“从起头都详细考察了”，所以他的书里有最详细的出生叙事，有最多的比喻，有对穷人、妇女、外邦人特别的关注。路加的耶稣，是所有人的朋友 – 特别是那些被推到边缘的人。

《约翰福音》成书最晚，距其他几卷已相隔数十年。书中的耶稣不再是加利利的一个木匠，而是“太初有道，道与神同在，道就是神”。约翰笔下的耶稣谈论永生、光、真理，行神迹时也带着象征意味。这是四福音中最哲学化、最抽象的一本。

四本书，四个人，四个视角。

读的时候，我常想：如果这四个人同时目击同一场车祸，他们的证词大概也会如此不同。马太会记住车牌号码，因为它符合某个预言；马可会记住撞击的巨响和飞溅的碎片；路加会跑去搀扶伤者；约翰则在思考这场事故对人类命运意味着什么。

没有一份是“错的”。但也没有一份是“完整的”。

这引出一个更普遍的问题：任何历史事件，任何重要人物，是否可能被单一的叙述穷尽？当教会将四福音书并置时，是在承认这种不可能 – 还是试图用四份不完整的叙述拼凑出一个完整的图景？

我不知道答案。我只知道，作为一个普通读者，面对四份叙述时，最诚实的态度不是选择相信哪一份，而是承认：人，或许从来就不是为被单一叙述所容纳而存在的。

A Note on the Gospels

关于四福音书

English
For readers unfamiliar with the Gospels: the four are not independent biographies in the modern sense. Each was written for a different audience and with a distinct theological purpose. The traditional dates and attributions—Mark as the earliest, John as the latest—are broadly accepted among biblical scholars, though the exact authorship of each book remains a subject of historical inquiry. This essay is not a work of theology, but a lay reader’s reflection on the experience of encountering four accounts of the same life.

中文
对不熟悉福音书的读者来说，有一点值得说明：四福音书并非现代意义上的独立传记。每一卷都面向不同的读者群体，承载着各自的神学意图。学界普遍认为《马可福音》成书最早、《约翰福音》最晚，但各卷的具体作者身份至今仍是历史研究的对象。本文不是神学论述，只是一位普通读者在接触四份关于同一人的记述时，所产生的感受与思考。

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