The Historical Purposes Behind the Writing of Marks and Matthews Gospels

This paper will discuss the historical purposes behind Marks and Mathews gospels. The Gospel of Mark ` The gospel according to Mark was written by John Mark one of the followers of Jesus Christ. The book bears the name Mark but It was the apostle, Peter was the one behind it. Mark only wrote what Peter experienced and witnessed when he was with Jesus (Carson et al. The book is written for the simple ordinary people, and some proofs are implying that it was written for the Christians in Rome as they were in the mission of spreading the gospel to the Gentiles(mark translated several Aramaic expressions into Greek language's 3:17; 34;9:43). He does this by frequently making the connection between Jesus and the Messianic prophecies to emphasise that indeed Jesus is the Messiah the Jews have been waiting for all this time.

Matthew was written explicitly for the Jewish people as the author portrays Jesus as a Jewish man who could have had very little importance to the Gentiles. Matthew often connected Jesus Christ's doing to the Jewish prophecy is also an indicator of whom the messages were meant to reach. Furthermore, it's only in the gospel of Matthew that stipulates that Jesus did not come to abolish the Jewish law, but to fulfil it (Matt 5:17-18) which was very important to the Jews and never to the Gentiles. The book of Matthew serves the purpose of trying to connect the Old Testament and the New Testament by making several references from the Old Testament more than any other book in the New Testament.