Reading the Gospels, the Epistles and Revelation

🎯 Objectives

By the end of this lesson you will be able to:

• read the Gospels as four testimonies about Jesus and interpret the parables by grasping their central point;
• read the epistles as real letters, written for concrete situations;
• approach Revelation with balance, without fear and without fantasies;
• go back over the BereaWay Method so that you can keep studying on your own.

📖 Receive

Read slowly this verse, which explains the purpose of an entire Gospel:

“But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.” — John 20:31 (KJV)

Then read Luke 15 straight through: three parables about the joy of finding what was lost. Before reading, look carefully at verses 1-2: whom is Jesus speaking to, and why?

🔍 Examine

We have reached the last lesson of the course. After narrative, Law, poetry, wisdom and prophecy, we now enter the genres of the New Testament: Gospels, epistles and Revelation.

The Gospels: four portraits of one person

The Gospels are not modern biographies that tell everything in chronological order. They are testimonies written so that the reader may know Jesus and believe in him. Each evangelist selects and arranges his material according to his purpose:

• Matthew writes with Jewish readers in mind and shows Jesus as the promised Messiah, who fulfills the Scriptures;
• Mark is quick and concrete, and places at the center Jesus’ actions and the way of the cross;
• Luke does careful research (Luke 1:1-4) and highlights Jesus’ compassion for the poor, for women, for the excluded;
• John chooses a few signs and long discourses to reveal who Jesus is: the Son of God come in the flesh.

Matthew, Mark and Luke are called synoptic, that is, “to be viewed together”, because they tell many episodes in a similar way. The differences between the Gospels are not contradictions: they are like four portraits of the same face, taken from different angles.

Two principles for reading the Gospels:

1. read each episode in the Gospel where it appears: ask why the evangelist placed it right there;
2. compare parallel passages, when they exist, to notice what each author emphasizes.

The parables: stories that strike home

Jesus often taught with parables: short stories taken from everyday life, which contain a surprise and call for a response. A parable generally has one central point, sometimes two or three linked to the main characters.

Go back to Luke 15. Jesus tells these parables because the Pharisees and scribes were grumbling: he welcomed sinners and ate with them. The center is God’s joy when someone lost comes home. And the older brother, who refuses to go into the celebration, is a direct invitation to those listening not to stay outside.

📌 The error of allegory

For centuries the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) was read as an allegory in which every detail had a hidden meaning: the Samaritan as Christ, the inn as the Church, the innkeeper as the apostle Paul, and so on. But Jesus tells the parable to answer a precise question: “Who is my neighbour?” And he concludes: “Go, and do thou likewise.” The meaning is clear and demanding: love anyone in need, even the “enemy”.

The epistles: real letters to real people

The epistles are letters, written by apostles or their co-workers to churches or to individuals. They have a recognizable structure: sender, recipients, greeting, often a thanksgiving, then the body of the letter and the closing greetings.

Above all, they are occasional letters: they respond to concrete situations. Paul writes to the Corinthians because there are divisions and specific questions (1 Corinthians 1:11; 7:1). He writes to the Galatians because someone wants to impose the Law as a condition of salvation. Reading an epistle is a bit like hearing only one side of a phone call: from the answers, we have to reconstruct what the questions were.

Three principles for reading the epistles:

1. read the whole letter in one sitting before studying a single passage;
2. follow the reasoning: pay attention to words such as “therefore”, “so”, “but”, which link ideas;
3. distinguish what is a lasting principle from what is an application tied to a culture, as we saw with the “holy kiss” in the first lesson.

Mistake to avoid: pulling out a single verse without following the thread of the argument. Often the “therefore” that opens a chapter, as in Romans 12:1, is the key to understanding everything that follows.

Revelation: hope in images

Revelation is at the same time prophecy, a letter to the seven churches (Revelation 2-3) and apocalyptic: a genre that communicates through visions, symbols, numbers and powerful images. The book promises a blessing to those who read it, hear it and keep what is written in it (Revelation 1:3): it is not a book to avoid.

Many of its symbols come from the Old Testament, especially from Daniel, Ezekiel and Zechariah. That is why the Old Testament is the first key to understanding them.

Throughout history, evangelical believers have read Revelation in different ways. In summary:

• some see above all events of the first century, linked to Roman persecution;
• others read in it the great stages of Church history;
• others see above all future events, linked to Christ’s return;
• still others read in it the spiritual principles of the conflict between good and evil, valid in every age.

These readings can be discussed with respect. But all believers faithful to Scripture share the central message: Christ, the Lamb who was slain, has conquered (Revelation 5:5-6); God will judge evil; the Church is called to faithfulness even in trial; and God will make all things new (Revelation 21:1-5).

Mistake to avoid: using Revelation to build timetables or to identify every symbol with a person or event in the news. The book was written to comfort and strengthen the churches, not to frighten them or feed their curiosity.

The BereaWay Method, for every genre

In this module you have seen that every genre has its own rules. But the method stays the same:

1. Receive: welcome the text with an open heart and place it in its world and its genre;
2. Examine: study the words, the structure and the reasoning carefully;
3. Connect: read each part in the light of the whole of Scripture, which finds its center in Christ, and bring it into your life.

The table sums up the genres we met in this module, with the key question to ask for each:

Genre	Key question
Narrative	What is God doing in this story?
Law	What principle does it express, and how is it fulfilled in Christ?
Poetry	What experience and what prayer does it express?
Wisdom	What general truth does it teach for everyday life?
Prophecy	Whom was the prophet addressing, and which horizon does he look to?
Gospels	What does this episode reveal about Jesus?
Epistles	What problem is the author addressing, and with what reasoning?
Revelation	What hope does it give to the suffering Church?

🔗 Connect

The New Testament completes and illuminates the whole of Scripture.

• Luke 1:1-4: Luke explains that he did careful research, so that the reader might know the certainty of the things he had been taught.
• Matthew 13:10-17: Jesus explains why he speaks in parables: they reveal the Kingdom to those who listen in faith.
• Colossians 4:16: Paul asks that his letter be read in another church too. The epistles were meant for a community, and for the whole Church.
• 2 Peter 3:15-16: Peter acknowledges the authority of Paul’s letters and warns that some things in them are hard to understand.
• Revelation 22:20: the Bible closes with a promise and a prayer: Jesus is coming soon, and the Church answers: “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”

🙏 Apply

Take a few minutes, on your own or with your study group:

1. Reread one of the three parables of Luke 15. Which character do you recognize yourself in most today: the one who is lost, the one who searches, or the older brother?
2. Choose a short letter, such as Philippians or Philemon, and read it all at once. What concrete situation do you think Paul is addressing?
3. What feeling does Revelation stir in you: fear, curiosity or hope? How does it change if you read it as a message of Christ’s victory?
4. Which of the three steps of the BereaWay Method do you want to make a habit in your daily study?

📚 Go Deeper

• Read Mark straight through, over a couple of evenings. It is the shortest Gospel: let its pace strike you.
• Read Revelation 4-5: the vision of the throne and the Lamb is the heart of the book.
• Review the lessons of the course and try applying the three steps to a passage you have always found difficult.

Thank you for walking with us

You have completed How to Study the Bible. You have seen why every reader interprets, which lenses we carry with us, how the Spirit guides us in study and how to read the different genres of Scripture with the BereaWay Method.

Now the most important step is the simplest: keep going, like the believers in Berea, receiving the Word eagerly and examining the Scriptures every day. We look forward to seeing you in the next BereaWay Academy courses, where we will apply the method to the books of the Bible and to the great truths of the faith.