A STRANGE Reason The Bible Has 4 Gospels

In "Against Heresies," Irenaeus made the very first written argument for why there should be four gospels in the Biblical canon. I don't think it was very good. #shorts

[zanews]

Long ago, the four Gospels lived together in harmony. Then everything changed when the Gospel of John attacked.

[wyattdupre]

"Why are there 4 gospels?"
"Because I said so"

[alphacause]

If there is one thing that the Church fathers were talented at doing is making shabby arguments seem sophisticated through the use of elegant language.

[crisdekker]

As to the gospels, thou shalt count to four. No more, no less. Four shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be four. Five shalt thou not count, nor shalt thou count to three, excepting that thou then proceedeth to four. Six is right out.

[koyokalyn]

"I take that seriously because... I'm 5" so good 😂

[sheridan]

Thou shalt not ask a woman her age, a man his salary, or a Christian what happened to the other gospels.

[_Sme__ne]

Irenaeus ' argument reminds me of Monty Python's Holy Hand Grenade

"And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, 'O Lord, bless this thy hand grenade, that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy.' And the Lord did grin. And the people did feast upon the lambs, and sloths, and carp, and anchovies, and orangutans, and breakfast cereals, and fruit bats, and large chulapas. And the Lord spake, saying, 'First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it.'

[Fytrzaczek]

Yeah, we could rationalize any number this way: 1 because 1 god, 2 because Jesus was god and human, 3 because holy Trinity, etc.

[animeguy]

"Why 4?"
"Because the world was considered flat like a table and a table has 4 legs."

Now that the world is sphere, we should update it to 0 Gospels... right?

[WhaleManMan]

I heard it's because the Four Gospels are organized to appeal to certain demographics at the time they were written.
Matthew=Appeals to Jews
Mark=Written for the Roman's
Luke=Written for the Gentiles
John=Written for other Christians

[madeleinedarnoco]

That picture is so cute! A very dignified knight of truth, I see!

[ilghiz]

_I don't smoke therefore I'm not an elephant_

[RePlayQ]

“Because there are 4 zones” aight uh, ima need a bit of help on that one

[rashkavar]

One argument I've heard that *actually* makes sense (and is something no Christian authority would ever openly admit [Edit: apparently I was wrong, a couple of people have mentioned this is what they were taught in church]): There's 4 gospels because there's the one written to appeal to Romans, the one for Greeks, the one for Hebrews, and the generic one that's meant to broadly appeal to everyone. Because when you're a fledgling religion, you need your converts, and the ability to express yourself within the rough idiom of 3 different cultures means you might be getting converts from all 3 cultures...but if you don't have a version that unites all 3 approaches, you'd have 3 new religions, not one, so you need the mixed one that works for everyone.

I forget which Gospel is supposed to be for which culture - as a born atheist, such details are less critical to me than those to whom the Bible has more meaning.

[Richard_Nickerson]

😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣
"These *other man-made* things are why, of course!"
🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

[teilhardmcgee]

A very adorable little knight! I hope you would grace us with a reenactment of this photo. I'd pay money to see you smiling in knight's armor now!

[karekarenohay]

"Why there are four gospels?"
"Yes".

[colerains]

This logic reminds me of the Time Cube website by Gene Ray. There's a cool video essay on it by Down the Rabbit Hole, but the "four corners of the world" part is almost a one for one. Essentially this dude launched a web page in 1997 about his theory for how the world works. There's a lot of pseudo-religious doctrine, and it's honestly kinda interesting. But it's also kind of tragic because you watch a man's obsession start to unravel his life.

[pauligrossinoz]

Two important facts to add:

1: Irenaeus wrote those words circa. *184 C.E.* Which is about 150 years after Jesus died.

2: Irenaeus was also the first person we have that put in writing the claim that those first 4 gospels were written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Until 184 C.E. we have no claims that the gospels were attributed to any specific authors.

[jcrosenkreuz]

I suppose they were simply pared down to the oldest and most consistent with one another. Mark was probably written first, Matthew and Luke filled in details from there, John was its own thing but still consistent. No gnosticism or other major retcons would have been acceptable from there at Nicaea.