Comparing Gospels: Matthew & Luke

The Catholic Church views the entire Bible as the inspired and error-free work of God and the Gospels as especially so, since they chronicle Jesus's time on Earth. As we've stated numerous times in earlier posts, the Church believes the Bible is sacred literature, and should be interpreted literally in some parts and figuratively in others. Since they are a narrative, the Gospels are primarily interpreted literally.

Matthew opens his Gospel with a long genealogy of Jesus, starting with Abraham and ending with Joseph, Mary's husband and the human "father" of Jesus. Matthew was likely addressing converts from Judaism, linking Jesus back to the legendary founder of their religion.

Luke offers a similar genealogy, but not until Chapter 3, and he starts with Jesus and works all the way back to Adam. Luke was a Gentile physician whose audience was almost exclusively Gentile (not Jewish). Neither Matthew nor Luke used editorial fiction, but both selected events from Jesus's life (Christians say with inspiration from the Holy Spirit) that would be appropriate for their respective audiences. A Gentile audience would not have cared about the link to Abraham, but would have cared about Jesus's link to the first man, Adam. The idea of Jesus being connected with the very beginning of mankind had a certain appeal amongst the Greeks. For example, notice St. Paul's Epistle. The Epistles are written letters that make up a part of the New Testament. St. Paul's Epistle even went as far as to call Christ the "New Adam," saying that the original Adam caused man to die, but the New Adam offered all a reborn life. A Gentile audience would be more interested in Jesus's link to the dawn of humanity, whereas Jews would have wanted an authentic link to Abraham from Jesus.

One seeming contradiction between the two Gospels can be found in Jesus's Sermon on the Mount. Matthew mentions that immeditately prior to his sermon, Jesus "went up the mountain" (Matthew 5:1), but Luke says Jesus gave his sermon on "a stretch of level ground" (Luke 6:17). Both men quote the teachings from this sermon, now called the Beatitudes ("Blessed are the poor in spirit, Blessed are they who mourn, Blessed are the meek, etc.,).

So why the difference between mountain and plain? Any good preacher knows that a good sermon can be used more than once, especially when you're moving from town to town, as Jesus was. It would not be unreasonable to assume that Jesus preached the Beatitudes more than once, since no one in the next town would have heard the message addressed to the previous town.

Matthew mentions the Sermon on the Mount because his Jewish audience would have been keen on such a detail. Why? Moses was given the Law (the 10 Commandments) on Mount Sinai. Jesus was giving the law of blessedness while also standing on a mountain. Matthew also wrote Jesus's words that he "had not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it," (Matthew 5:17) which also appealed to the Jewish crowd. Moses gave Ten Commandments that came as Law from God, while Jesus said he would fulfill that Law. Luke, meanwhile, mentions that the sermon was given on a plain. Why this obscure detail? Luke was writing for a Gentile audience. The Gentiles were accumstomed to philosophy and debate in the Greek manner. Greek philosophers would debate each other on level ground: shoulder-to-shoulder and eye-to-eye, in order to give a sense of equality and fairness in their discussion. Since his Gentile audience would have more interest in a speech given in such a fashion, Luke retells one.

Even a slight difference can be detected in the wording of the Beatitudes in Luke's edition when contrasted with Matthew's. Luke added an additional "woe to you" after each "blessed are you" - something not found in Matthew's account. Again, if we take the perspective that these speeches were the same sermon given at different times, it is very possible that Jesus adapted his older sermon for a different audience. The Church maintains the discrepancy comes from changes Jesus made to his own speech, since neither sacred author would feel free to alter anything Jesus said.