The Fourfold Gospel, Volume 1. John DelHousaye

      The Fourfold Gospel

      A Formational Commentary on Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John

      Volume 1: From the Beginning to the Baptist

      Copyright © 2020 John DelHousaye. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

      Pickwick Publications

      An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

      199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3

      Eugene, OR 97401

      www.wipfandstock.com

      paperback isbn: 978-1-5326-8364-0

      hardcover isbn: 978-1-5326-8365-7

      ebook isbn: 978-1-5326-8366-4

      Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

      Names: DelHousaye, John.

      Title: The fourfold gospel : a formational commentary on Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John : Volume 1 : from the beginning to the Baptist / by John DelHousaye.

      Description: Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

      Identifiers: isbn 978-1-5326-8364-0 (paperback) | isbn 978-1-5326-8365-7 (hardcover) | isbn 978-1-5326-8366-4 (ebook)

      Subjects: LCSH: Bible. Gospels—Commentaries. | Mystagogy. | Bible. Gospels—Criticism, interpretation, etc. | Bible. Gospels—Hermeneutics | Bible. Gospels—Theology

      Classification: bs2555.3 d45 2020 (print) | bs2555.3 (ebook)

      Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

      Scripture quotations marked (NRSV) are from New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

      Manufactured in the U.S.A. 08/05/20

      To Tiffany, a lifelong gift from Christ,

      who insisted on this publication.

      Not on bread alone will the human being live, but on every word coming through God’s mouth. . . . And opening his mouth, he began teaching them . . .

      —Matthew 4:4; 5:1

      Preface

      For twenty years or so, Jesus and I met nearly every morning in the Gospels. He kindly heard my questions and hopes; I tried to listen, but the noise was almost overwhelming (tinnitus eventually added to the challenge). But we met, teacher to student, physician to patient, savior to sinner. He loved me, and I began to love him because I knew more of the beloved, the Spirit, who is love, and the unrelenting Lover. The Gospels have witnessed faithfully to this reality for two millennia, but must be seen and heard by each generation.

We enter God’s Kingdom (or, as John puts it, “eternal life”) through what Jesus calls the “faith of a mustard seed,” which is very small yet real. This is necessarily so: beliefs are not reality—they are often simplified or distorted—but direct our way in a strange world that would otherwise overwhelm us. All genuine human knowledge, I suspect, is but a drop in a still, dark sea. We are sponges to what we heard as children, learned in school, and see modeled around us. Everything is our teacher. Humans generally believe what is easiest to understand (“processing fluency”). These organizing filters deepen each day with each meeting of our mind and stimuli, so that reality and interpretation are nearly indistinguishable; they become a culture’s definition of sanity, the ability to think and behave normally. “He is out of his mind,” declared Jesus’s own family (Mark 3:21). In the Gospels, the crowds—many of whom had grown up hearing Scripture read and expounded in the synagogue, praying, and hoping in a messiah—are confused and do not trust Jesus. Even the disciples struggle to understand. After Christendom was underway, Antony of Egypt (c. 251–356), who left his culture to hear Jesus in the desert, said: “A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him saying, ‘You are mad, you are not like us.’”1 Christianity’s historical impact, particularly in the West, may disguise the reality that understanding Jesus is still difficult—indeed impossible—without the illumination of the Holy Spirit. That many today reject the gospel should not surprise. The Gospels suggest starting over in Jesus, who is one with our inherent God awareness (see Rom 1:21). The Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner (1904–1984) predicts that third-millennium Christians will have a “genuine experience of God emerging from the very heart of our existence,” or they will no longer be Christians.2

The Gospels invite the reader into a strange world, full of demons and the devil, but I suggest they are strangers to our beliefs about them. Several fields of knowledge have been drawn to the same mysteries, offering their own frames. But how well does the university understand evil and oppression, which are unavoidable in human experience? Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109) describes this path as fides quaerens intellectum (“faith seeking understanding”).3 Jesus comes to each of us in the darkness, and, without explanation, says, “follow me.” Mirroring this summons, the Gospels offer a narrative depiction of reality—a necessary simplification, a model.4 The faith of a mustard seed allows readers to participate in the story, to begin a pilgrimage, while allowing space for illumination and growth.

      1. Ward, Sayings of the Desert Fathers, 6.

      2. Rahner, Theological Investigations, 20:149; see Egan, Ignatius Loyola, 13–14; Carroll, “Moving Mysticism to the Center,” 41–52.

      3. Anselm, Proslogion, 1–6.

      4. Bruner, “Narrative Construction of Reality,” 1–20; see Powell, What Is Narrative Criticism, 23.

      Acknowledgments

      Many have given financially to Phoenix Seminary, which allowed time for research and writing. Many students read and improved the material by sharing their own readings and stories. Lorne Zelyck and Travis Buchanan, who are now professors, encouraged me through their friendship and expertise. Corinne Bellars, who became my teaching assistant, was the first student to voice excitement about the medieval Quadriga (PaRDeS) and its potential for reaching her generation. (I also thank everyone who questioned this approach, seeking grounding and clarity.) Brian Arnold, John Meade, Jonathan Logan, Justin Smith, Malcolm Hartnell, Norm Wakefield, Paul Wegner, Peter Gurry, Steve Tracy, and Wayne Grudem have been invaluable colleagues. Our library staff, Doug Olbert, Jim Santeford, and Mitch Miller, helped secure resources for this project. Ted Wueste, who directs the Spiritual Formation Society of Arizona, has been a soul friend in this material. My father has modelled Bible study and shepherding; my mother, spiritual direction; and my brother, cultural engagement. I am also grateful for many friends at Redemption Church Alhambra, who are sharing this journey with my family—Tiffany (to whom this first volume is dedicated, my bride and co-minister), Livia, Joslyn, and Tate.

      Abbreviations

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