The Birth of Christianity

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” – John 14:6

This website is divided into three main sections – Combined Gospels, Early Christianity and a Blog. The combination of these sections is designed to introduce the reader to the birth of Christianity, that is how Christianity started and was practiced in the first century.

Combined Gospels

I have compiled a single narrative of the Gospels by combining verses from each of the four Gospels; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Designed to be read as one complete story, the narrative enables the reader to follow the birth, teachings, events, death and resurrection of Jesus without having to switch from one Gospel to another.

The narrative is broken into short topics, with the Scriptural references listed to enable the reader to do their own research.

Objective
Originally I set out to make this narrative for my own benefit, wondering if it was possible to take the information from all four Gospels and come up with something that made sense to me. Initially I searched online and found most sites providing a harmony of the Gospels merely listed the topics in a side-by-side format, still needing me to read them separately. Sites that did have a combined narrative were either in the old King James version or included too much commentary by the author.

Being a layman, I wanted something that was easy to read and understand and did not include a lot of commentary, distracting me from the main message. Eventually I decided I would be better off starting from scratch and compiling my own.

By the time I was about 75% of the way through, I saw that I had managed to achieve my aim and that it would be a good idea to create my own website to share it with others. The original site was made in 2011 and I have upgraded it here to a modern platform that will work on any device. I hope you find the project as interesting and beneficial as I have.

Gospel Contradictions
As anyone who has compared the Gospels with each other will have found, they often seem to contradict each other or tell a different version of a topic, or place events at a different time. That means any harmonizing will inevitably produce chronological or other errors. However, for someone new to the Gospels, I feel the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. The narrative is aimed at people who balk at reading all four Gospels separately or don’t see how everything ties together.

Being one complete narrative, I have tried to maintain continuity of thought and meaning when wording each topic. Where possible, I have used the verses unchanged – only modifying them as needed to maintain the flow. I have tried to remain unbiased, concentrating on the message rather than the actual words.

Scriptural Accuracy
The combination of the Gospels is not meant as a reference document or for teaching Scripture. I am not attempting to re-write the Gospels or the New Testament. My own thoughts and bias will naturally have crept into the narrative and, as I said, I am only a layman.

I encourage you to read each topic in your own Bible, using the verse references listed below each topic heading. The narrative is meant as a guide only and the ultimate authority for accuracy must always be Scripture itself. I have no agenda or denominational slant on what I have written, it is designed purely to combine what is already written.

Navigating the Narrative
This narrative is designed to be used in two ways; reading from page one to the end or by going directly to topics. To simply start reading from the beginning, go to page one. Each page has a “Previous Page” link at the top and a “Next Page” link at the bottom. To go straight to a particular topic, use the “Gospel Topics” link from the menu.

Early Christianity

I have also decided to extend the website to cover how Christianity developed. This is a logical progression from the combined Gospels.

However, it will be very much my understanding and, unlike the Gospels, I will be adding commentary. For more information, please read the Introduction.

Blog

The blog is designed to be an ongoing series of articles, where you can also provide your own comments. Again, I stress that I am only a layman and therefore anything I write in the blog may or may not be accurate. If you disagree with anything I have written and don’t want to say so as a public comment, please feel free to use the Contact form to let me know privately.