Knappen With A "K"

Musings, prayers, and sidebar thoughts of a Methodist pastor, Rev. Molly Knappen.

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Knappen With A "K"

What are the Gospels?

September 03, 2026 • Rev. Molly Knappen • Season 2026 • Episode 2

0:00 | 2:26

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People talk about "the Gospels."

What is that? Are the Gospels another name for the Bible? Is it something else entirely? What's up with this?

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If you would like to hear chunks of Sunday sermons and more in-depth musings on Scripture, head over to my other podcast, Scripture Notes. You can find it online at Trinity United Methodist Church of Colusa.

SPEAKER_00 0:04

What are the Gospels? I'm Reverend Molly Napan, an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church. The Gospels are part of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. What is the Christian Bible? The Christian Bible is a library of texts, and there are three basic sections. The first section is the Hebrew scriptures, sometimes called the Old Testament. And those are the sacred scriptures recognized by Jewish people. Then we have a section called the Apocrypha that not all Christians recognize. My tradition considers Apocrypha suitable for preaching and teaching. And then there's a segment called the New Testament. Within the New Testament, the first four books in the library of the New Testament are called the Gospels. And those are the four big stories of Jesus: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Those books are named after what people say are the authors. Probably those people did not physically write it. It was passed down oral tradition through though under those names. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. You can think of them almost like four siblings, and they are telling family stories, and they are each telling them from their own recollection, their own perspective. So they're sometimes slightly different. That is a feature and not a bug. Nobody's lying, and still sometimes the stories don't add up. But that tension is just really beautiful. And remember, those four stories with their little weird incongruities were put into the Bible for a reason. So the Gospels are the story of Jesus. There are four different versions. They're not all identical. Each one is being told from its own point of view. And those books lay within the New Testament part of the Bible, which is one of three big segments of the Bible the Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh, the Apocrypha, and the New Testament. Hopes that helps. Bye.