THE LIFE AND MINISTRY OF JESUS

Healing Wells

*** Digging the Wells of Healing ***

THE LIFE AND MINISTRY OF JESUS

HOW TO MAKE A GOSPEL PARALLEL

By Helena Filmalter

INTRODUCTION:

The first healing evangelist that we studied as part of our home schooling was John G. Lake. At the same time, we were reading the Gospel of Mark in our morning devotion. As we read through the first few chapters of Mark, we could just feel the excitement of the beginning days of Jesus' miracle ministry in Galilee and we set out to take a deeper look at all the things He did while on earth.

In a nutshell, we made photocopies of all four Gospels (the red letters come out just fine!) and cut them into columns. Paying careful attention to references to time and place, we cut and staggered the Gospels to show the chronological order of Jesus' ministry as best we could. Although Bible scholars say that the Gospels are not always in exact order of time, this proved to be minor. We were able to make good sense of the development of Jesus' healing and teaching ministry, as we followed Him from 'crusade to crusade', from Judea to Galilee and to the neighboring provinces and countries.

Suddenly Jesus, the 30 year old man who entered the ministry, became real. So often we read the Gospels, here a chapter and there a chapter, with the result that His ministry has an ethereal quality in our minds, disconnected from time and place. We have very little idea of the order of his ministry: when and where He did the miracles and how His ministry developed through different phases.

HOW TO MAKE A GOSPEL PARALLEL

I worked with my 5th grade son. Older kids might be able to do this by themselves.

MATERIALS:

1. Photocopies of all four Gospels - Red letter editions copy just fine, but do not use a study Bible: their notes will only complicate your task and the idea is make your own discoveries about Jesus' ministry.

2. Ream of white printing paper

3. Ruler, pencil, scissors, and tape (Scotch Magic Tape works well, since you can lift it again without ripping the paper)

METHOD:

1. Make a one column scroll for each Gospel by cutting each Gospel into columns and joining them end to end with tape. To avoid a mix-up, join as you cut. You should have four very long strips, one for each Gospel after this step. Concertina fold these strips for storage.

2. Due to the long lengths of paper, we cut each Gospel strip to divide into 3 parts:

Part 1: The first part of each Gospel, about His birth, etc. to just before John the Baptist starts his ministry.

Part 2: From the start of John the Baptist's ministry to just before the Triumphal Entry .

Part 3: Triumphal Entry through the end.

After this step you, you should have a total of 12 strips, three for each Gospel.

3. To line up the Gospels, work on the floor. Lay the first strip of each Gospel side by side, starting with Mathew on the left hand side, then Mark and Luke, and with John on the right hand side.

4. Scan through the text. Pay careful attention to what happened, and where and when it happened. Use the maps at the back of your Bible to help you place the events. This will help to decide which events came before (or after) events recorded in other Gospels. Not everything is recorded in all four Gospels, but using these guidelines will help to stagger the events recorded in all four Gospels with one another.

5. To stagger the Gospels with one another, move the strips up and down relative to each other to line up the same event. Cut and tape so that the each passage is taped to the same passage in the neighboring Gospel, keeping the order of the Gospels from left to right. If a particular Gospel does not contain a certain passage, then the column for that Gospel 'runs empty'. Often 2 or even 3 columns run empty. Use printer paper as temporary backing to keep things together where a middle column runs empty.

It takes time and careful consideration to line up the Gospels. Read and think carefully as you go along. Use the maps at the back of your Bible - e.g.. if a miracle in Galilee is followed by something that happened in Judea, Jesus obviously had to travel in between. One of the other Gospels might contain an event that happened on the way to Judea.

A few events does not line up, e.g. where Jesus' mother and brothers came to take charge of Him, is recorded very early in one of the Gospels and much later in another Gospel. We did not move any event out of sequence with the rest of the Gospel in which it appears.

This step takes quite a number of days. Roll - don't fold - your work during this stage.

6. After staggering the Gospels, the next step is to transfer to a permanent backing with wide enough margins for notes.

For each Gospel, tape together a long length of printer paper that can be concertina folded.

Lay these lengths of printer paper alongside each other on the floor.

Cut the staggered Gospels from each other and tape each Gospel to its own length of printer paper, maintaining the way in which it was staggered. If a Gospel does not contain a certain passage, its printer paper just runs empty.

You might wonder why step 5 and 6 is not combined. It is far easier to line up the Gospels with just the columns in your hand running right next to each other, that trying to line up columns on printer paper with wide widths of the paper separating the columns. We tried both ways.

Congratulations on completing your very own Gospel Parallel!

Helena Filmalter is an anointed Teacher of the Word. Tschedule her for a Conferenceyou can contact her at:

503-665-3096 (h)
503-560-7314 (cell)
helena@healingwells.com