History Literature / TheFourGospels

Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the "Synoptic Gospels" (from Greek ''syn''=together, ''opsis''=seeing) because [[RashomonStyle they tell largely the same story]]. It's generally accepted in modern Biblical scholarship that Mark was written first, and that Matthew and Luke[[note]]Or whoever wrote those books, but let's not get into ''that'' fight[[/note]] copied off of Mark and got their info from other sources that no longer exist (called "Q", from [[GratuitousGerman German "Quelle", meaning "Source"]]) containing Jesus' sayings and parables. They were also relying on oral traditions as well; Luke, in fact, begins his account with a claim that he has carefully investigated other accounts.

For the many, many works based off of the Gospels and the Jesus story, see the [[UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} Useful Notes page for Jesus]], the trope PassionPlay, the ArtSubjects index, and [[DerivativeWorks/TheBible the Bible's Derivative Works page]]. And for the religion that's been fond of the Gospels, see UsefulNotes/{{Christianity}}.

** Jairus' daughter in Mark chapter 5 dies while he goes to find Jesus to heal her. Jesus takes the father and mother into the bedroom along with Peter, James, and John and says "Talithia cumi" (which translates as "Little girl, arise"), which causes the girl to rise back to life from her bed.

%%** Other examples include a girl in Mark 5.

* CluelessAesop: The "Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard" has often been described as a '''very difficult''' story to interpret, and is [[BrokenAesop possibly broken]]. In the literal sense, while the landowner is entitled to pay the laborers however he sees fit, this doesn't make him a fair master for giving all workers the same pay, including those who showed up at the final hour. This kind of unethical malpractice ''will get you into trouble'' as an employer in real life...so if you want to keep your workforce happy and moralized, ''[[AndThatWouldBeWrong do NOT do it]]''. Figuratively, its saying God saves by grace, not by our worthiness, or timing of conversion. Eleventh-hour workers would be welcomed as equals in God's Kingdom. Obviously this teaching can backfire ''horribly'' if people take that as permission to be absolute jerks in this life, and seek a DeathbedConfession at the last minute.

** The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard describes a variety of laborers who work different amounts of time, building expectation for a lesson about the rewards of hard and patient work. Unexpectedly, Jesus ends the parable with all the workers receiving a day's wage, even those that didn't start working until near the end of the day. A mundane and cliche story turns out to be communicating something much more unexpected.

* CluelessAesop: The "Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard" has often been described as a '''very difficult''' story to interpret, and is [[BrokenAesop possibly broken]]. In the literal sense, while the landowner is entitled to pay the laborers however he sees fit, this doesn't make him a fair master for giving all workers the same pay, including those who showed up at the final hour. This kind of unethical malpractice ''will get you into trouble'' as an employer in real life...so if you want to keep your workforce happy and moralized, ''[[AndThatWouldBeWrong do NOT do it]]''. Figuratively, its saying God saves by grace, not by our worthiness, or timing of conversion. Eleventh-hour workers would be welcomed as equals in God's Kingdom. Obviously this teaching can backfire ''horribly'' if people take that as permission to be horrible jerks in this life, and seek a DeathbedConfession at the last minute.

** UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire is this for the more worldly aspects of the narrative--not specifically [[MiddleManagementMook Pilate]] or [[TheEmperor Tiberius]] as the latter [[DecadentCourt largely wasn't bothered about running the Empire]] and the former is arguably JustFollowingOrders--in which Jews in Galilee and Judea constantly petition Jesus on how to reconcile their identities as Jews and Roman subjects right down to whose coins to use in which places, with even Romans approaching Jesus for advice, and Jesus' death sentence is the result of his messianic prophecies being interpreted as sedition against Roman authority.[[note]]The TropeNamer for IAmLegion literally being named ''Legion'' as well as its possession of a herd of swine, ergo unclean meat, is widely considered to be an anti-Roman polemic.[[/note]]

* NarratorAllAlong: The Gospel of John is written in a third-person omniscient voice, but at the end, the author confirms that the unnamed "disciple whom Jesus loved" was in fact the author of the Gospel; precisely ''whom'' that disciple is, is still debated to this day.

** UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire is this for the more worldly aspects of the narrative--not specifically [[MiddleManagementMook Pilate]] or [[TheEmperor Tiberius]] as the latter [[DecadentCourt largely wasn't bothered about running the Empire]] and the former is arguably JustFollowingOrders--in which Jews in Galilee and Judea constantly petition Jesus on how to reconcile their identities as Jews and Roman subjects, with even Romans approaching Jesus for advice, and Jesus' death sentence is the result of his messianic prophecies being interpreted as sedition against Roman authority.[[note]]The TropeNamer for IAmLegion literally being named ''Legion'' as well as its possession of a herd of swine, ergo unclean meat, is widely considered to be an anti-Roman polemic.[[/note]]

** UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire is this for the more worldly aspects of the narrative--not specifically [[MiddleManagementMook Pilate]] or [[TheEmperor Tiberius]] as the latter [[DecadentCourt largely wasn't bothered about running the Empire]] and the former is arguably JustFollowingOrders--in which Jews in Galilee and Judea constantly petition Jesus on how to reconcile their identities as Jews and Roman subjects, with even Romans approaching Jesus for advice, and Jesus' death sentence is the result of his messianic prophecies being interpreted as sedition against Roman authority.[[note]]The TropeNamer for IAmLegion literally being named ''Legion'' is widely considered to be an anti-Roman polemic.[[/note]]

* IAmLegion: A [[DemonicPossession demon-possessed]] man [[TropeNamer named the trope]], identifying himself by saying, "My name is Legion, for we are many." Presumably speaking in the VoiceOfTheLegion. His MeaningfulName is a clear allusion to how Roman authority was perceived amongst Jews.

** UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire is this for the more worldly aspects of the narrative--not specifically [[MiddleManagementMook Pilate]] or [[TheEmperor Tiberius]] as the latter [[DecadentCourt largely wasn't bothered about running the Empire]] and the former is arguably JustFollowingOrders--in which Jews in Galilee and Judea constantly petition Jesus on how to reconcile their identities as Jews and Roman subjects, with even Romans approaching Jesus for advice, and Jesus' death sentence is the result of his messianic prophecies being interpreted as sedition against Roman authority.

* IAmLegion: A [[DemonicPossession demon-possessed]] man [[TropeNamer named the trope]], identifying himself by saying, "My name is Legion, for we are many." Presumably speaking in the VoiceOfTheLegion.

* TheGhost: Tiberius Caesar, TheEmperor of Rome, is mentioned twice in the Gospels, the earliest being Luke 3:1 dating the beginning of Jesus' career to the fifteenth year of his reign, and the other being as a generic 'Caesar' on Roman coinage when Jesus is asked about to whom Jews should pledge allegiance to, Rome or God. Despite much of the Gospels having to do with the tensions between these Roman and Jewish identities, he doesn't make any appearances mainly because [[ButForMeItWasTuesday nothing about their events would've been especially notable to his authority]].[[note]]On a personal level, he was too busy having sex parties on Capri to bother with running the Empire as a whole, leaving it to [[TheStarscream his praetorian prefect Sejanus]].[[/note]]

* GreaterScopeVillain: Satan, being the BigBad of the Bible, is obviously this. But the only times he himself is a direct threat is when he attempts to trick Jesus thrice in the wilderness.

* NarratorAllAlong: The Gospel of John is written in a third-person omniscient voice, but at the end, the author confirms that the unnamed "disciple whom Jesus loved" was in fact the author of the Gospel.