Suppose an offer was presented to you, a deep line by line examination of one of the Gospels, under the care of the best Reformed NT Teacher alive. As stated you will be going line by line looking at the Greek, (and if your Greek is like mine, not so hot LOTS of parsing codes ) This will be around a one year study. Catch, you must select one Gospel! And yes, I am putting you on the "spot" again Brethren, so! Choose wisely and carefully! If you would state why you selected your Gospel.

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~etexas~

Gospel of St. Mark

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Richard
CofE
UK

Hard choice, but with one year I would select St. Luke. I have always like it's scope and it is a Literary Masterpiece!

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~etexas~

Hi Richard! What draws you to Mark?

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~etexas~

I would choose Matthew for a couple of reasons. One I like the Jewish context in which its written, there are numerous references to the OT. It causes someone to research the Old Testament when studying through the text, which provides a thorough understaning of what Christ is refering to in the Gospel. In addition, I like how Christ expands on the Law of God in Chapter 5.

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John J.
Member Christ Prebyterian Church (OPC)
Salt Lake City, Utah
www.christpres.net

Good choice!

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~etexas~

As a trained historian I would go for Luke, of course.

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Benjamin P. Glaser
Pittsburgh, PA
Fairmount ARP Church, Sewickley, PA
Student of Theology Pittsburgh Theological Seminary & Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary

“If the Church could be aroused to a deeper sense of the glory that awaits her, she would enter with a warmer spirit into the struggles that are before her.”-- J.H. Thornwell

All RIGHT! I am a HUGE History buff, to me St. Luke has many great elements, the Theology, History, Elegant Literature and a connection to Acts, which many consider one of the more important pieces of NT Canon.

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~etexas~

Speaking of Acts, can I treat the Gospel as a "Two-Part" book and add Acts in with my study????

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Benjamin P. Glaser
Pittsburgh, PA
Fairmount ARP Church, Sewickley, PA
Student of Theology Pittsburgh Theological Seminary & Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary

“If the Church could be aroused to a deeper sense of the glory that awaits her, she would enter with a warmer spirit into the struggles that are before her.”-- J.H. Thornwell

Ditto to above if it was two part I would say Luke then Acts together.

But I chose John since it is the most mystical of the four. Spend a lot of time on John 1 and its implications.

Then again Matthew would be good because of the Olivet Discourse.

I assume the professor somehow survived the crash and is on the same desert island with our favorite bible. Maybe it was one of those R.C. Sproul cruises and the ship sank.

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Erick Bohndorf, Covenant Baptist Church, KS
http://qayaqtraveler.blogspot.com/
The question for us today is, will we be like the majority of Israel and continue to look in fear at the giants in the land and urge our fellow Christians to be "realistic," or will we be like Joshua and Caleb and faithfully follow our king, trusting to fulfill every one of his promises completely?

I voted John, because of the personal nature of his writing and I think it has a well rounded presentation of the gospel and the Savior.

Do we also get to choose "the best Reformed NT Teacher alive"?

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~James Helbert~, Wytheville, VA
Providence Reformed Presbyterian Church, RPCUS
TheBibleAlone.com / The Edinburgh Inn
"Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” - Zechariah 3:2

If we do I'll take Steven M. Baugh of WSCAL so that I really understand Greek.

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Benjamin P. Glaser
Pittsburgh, PA
Fairmount ARP Church, Sewickley, PA
Student of Theology Pittsburgh Theological Seminary & Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary

“If the Church could be aroused to a deeper sense of the glory that awaits her, she would enter with a warmer spirit into the struggles that are before her.”-- J.H. Thornwell

YES! You get to select the ANY NT Scholar you wish, one on one! Some asked if this was like my desert island scenario. No, not at all, you will be have all 66 books of the Holy-Writ, you ONLY have to decide which Gospel you want your NT Scholar of choice to study, any other Bible books would be for you to study on your own time. Hey! This is a pretty good deal here! Better than the desert island!

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~etexas~

Cool! I'll have to give this some thought. Unless your supplying a list of of scholars as well.

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~James Helbert~, Wytheville, VA
Providence Reformed Presbyterian Church, RPCUS
TheBibleAlone.com / The Edinburgh Inn
"Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” - Zechariah 3:2

Nope! The selection of a Scholar is totally up to you!

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~etexas~

Naturally I would want to study the best named Gospel. The obvious choice then being the Gospel of Mark.

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Mark Maney
Kwanglim Korean Methodist Church - 1689'er Baptist Pastor (read profile for more info)
Master of Theological Studies emphasis Biblical Studies
Trinity Western University, ACTS Seminaries
Surrey, BC. (Vancouver), Canada

Chuckle! Are you being "name biased " I like what Luther called the Gospel of Mark:"That robust little Gospel." Very apt, I always have liked that.

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~etexas~

I would especially enjoy the exposition of chapter 6 of John.

Not sure yet who I would pick as a NT scholar to have instruct me. I am open to suggestions.

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Sterling Harmon
Coventry, CT
PCA
Deacon
________________

"Whatever is laudable in our works proceeds from the grace of God."
-- John Calvin, Institutes III:xv.3.

"Our Lord God must be a good man, to be fond of worthless fellows. I cannot like them, and yet I, myself, am one."
-- Martin Luther, Table Talk

Actually, I will open options of who to study with a bit more (feeling generous) it can be a NT Scholar from anywhere you wish or if you wish, it can be a more "general" Theologian, or it can be a Pastor, think of this as an ultimate wish. You get your scholar, Theologian, or Pastor 5 days a week for one hour, for a year, the ULTIMATE Bible study.

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~etexas~

I voted John, and I would want R.C. Sproul to teach me. I pick it because it's loaded with theology, and well, do I need to explain my choice of R. C.?

Etexas, I noticed you put the saint in front of the gospel writers names, are you going Roman Catholic on us?

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Timothy Johnson
First United Presbyterian of Moline
PCUSA (Yea, I know)
Theology/Philosophy Sunday School Teacher
Davenport, IA

Timothy!

I would go with John since there are a lot of phrases in John that are really hard to understand, more then reading through the Synoptics, IMO.

The bad thing is John doesn't have many parables. Luke has many and I would love to figure out the meaning to all the parables.

Good thread idea.

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Andrew Clerebout
Joy Baptist Church, IFB (Westland, MI)

www.animalfarmblog.com
^Nick Altman's blog

Not at all. The St. as preface to the name of the 4 Gospel writers continued into the Reformation, to this day some KJV Cambridge Editions use this tradition, I have no issue with it, the Bible itself refers to true believers as Saints.

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~etexas~