We have four gospels because during the early church period, four people found it necessary to tell the story of Jesus from four different perspectives. Each gospel was written for a different (original) group of people, by a different author, who was trying to accomplish a different purpose. Let’s take a closer look at each one:, There are more than four ancient documents which claim to be gospels, or which contain stories of Jesus, including works like the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Peter, and a number of “infancy gospels”—fanciful accounts of Jesus’ birth and childhood., The New Testament is a collection of 27 Christian texts written in Koine Greek by various authors, forming the second major division of the Christian Bible. It includes four gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, epistles attributed to Paul and other authors, and the Book of Revelation., The New Testament contains four gospels attributed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The four gospels are not biographies of Jesus, nor are they history as we define it. What each gospel attempted to do was write a theological explanation for the events in the life of Jesus of Nazareth., In fact scholars now have copies of 19 gospels (either complete, in fragments or in quotations), written in the first and second centuries A.D.—nine of which were discovered in the 20th century. Two more are preserved, in part, in other ancient writings, and we know the names of several others, but do not have copies of them., Understand the unique perspectives, themes, and purposes of the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Learn their differences and common ground in portraying the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ..