The Lives of the Four Evangelists

The Lives of the Four Evangelists

By Saint Sophronius of Jerusalem

Translated into English and published by Chrysostom Press www.chrysostompress.org

These brief Lives are traditionally included in the introductory
sections of the liturgical Gospels of the Orthodox Church in Greek and
Church Slavonic; hence they are included also with the commentaries on
the Gospels by Blessed Theophylact. St Sophronius I was Patriarch of
Jerusalem (634-638) and as a patristic writer is also known as
Sophronius the Sophist. His extant writings, including liturgical
hymns, poetry, accounts of lives and miracles of the saints, and
dogmatic works, have been published in Migne’s Patrologia Graeca. He is also co-author, with John Moshcus, of the Lemonarium, a classical collection of accounts of the ancient desert fathers.

The Life of the Evangelist Matthew

Matthew, also known as Levi, tax collector turned apostle, was the
first to compose the Gospel of Christ, in Judea in the Hebrew language
for those of the circumcision who believed. It is unknown by whom it
was later translated into Greek. The Hebrew text is preserved to this
day in the library of Caesarea that was most diligently assembled by
the Martyr Pamphilus. The Nazarenes of Berroia in Syria, who use this
text, gave me permission to copy it. From this one is easily convinced
that where the evangelist makes use of the testimony of the Old
Testament Scriptures, either himself, or in the person of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ, he does not follow the authority of the Seventy
(i.e. The Septuagint), but of the Hebrew text. It is from the latter
that these two passages come: Out of Egypt have I called My Son (Mt 2:15) and He shall be called a Nazarene (Mt 2:23).

The Life of the Evangelist Mark

Mark was the disciple and interpreter of Peter, and, at the urging
of the brethren in Rome, Mark wrote his short Gospel, following exactly
what he had heard Peter tell. When Peter saw it, he gave it his
approval, and directed that it be read in the Church, as Clement says
in Book VI of his Outline. Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis, makes
mention of this same Mark. Peter, in his first Epistle, refers to Rome
metaphorically by the name “Babylon”: The church that is at Babylon, chosen together with you, saluteth you; and so doth Mark my son
(I Pet. 5:13). Taking with him the Gospel which he himself had written,
Mark went to Egypt, and was the first to preach Jesus Christ in
Alexandria, where he established the Church. So highly did he excel
both in teaching and in a life of steadfast endurance, that all those
who came to believe in Christ, followed his example. And Philo [an
Alexandrian Jewish philosopher of the first century AD], the most
eloquent of the Jews, was so impressed when he saw the first church in
Alexandria while it was still made up primarily of Jews, that he wrote
a book about the life of those Christians, praising, as it were, his
own race. Luke relates that the believers in Jerusalem held everything
in common; likewise Philo preserved the memory of what he had seen
occurring in Alexandria under the guidance of Mark. Mark reposed in the
eighth year of Nero’s reign [63 A.D.]. He was buried in Alexandria,
where Ananias succeeded him as bishop.

The Life of the Evangelist Luke

Luke,
a physician of Antioch, was not unacquainted with Greek culture, as is
shown by his writings. He was a companion of the Apostle Paul and
followed him in all his journeys to foreign lands. Luke wrote the
Gospel to which Paul himself refers when he says, And we have sent with him the brother, whose praise is in the Gospel throughout all the churches (II Cor. 8:18). And in his letter to the Colossians he says, Luke, the beloved physician, greets you (Col. 4:14). And to Timothy he says, Only Luke is with me (II Tim. 4:11).

Luke wrote another excellent book entitled The Acts of the Apostles,
a history which ends with Paul’s two-year stay in Rome, that is, in the
fourth year of Nero’s reign. This leads us to believe that The Acts of
the Apostles was written in Rome. The tale of the journey of Paul and
Thecla, and every other fable, such as the baptism of the lion, should
not be counted among the canonical Scriptures. For it is not possible
that he who was inseparable from the Apostle should not have known of
this act among all his other acts. Tertullian also mentions a certain
elder in Asia at that time, a companion of the Apostle Paul, who, when
it was proven in the presence of John that he was the author of this
book, confessed that he had written it out of love for Paul. Some say
that this is why Luke does not mention himself as the author. Whenever
Paul says in his own Epistles, according to my Gospel (Rom.
2:16, etc.), it is clear that he means the Gospel written by Luke. But
Luke learned the Gospel not only from the Apostle Paul, who was not
with the Lord in the body at that time, but from the other Apostles as
well. He himself clearly states this at the beginning of his work,
saying, even as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses.
Therefore he wrote the Gospel as he had heard it. But he wrote The Acts
based on what he himself had experienced. Luke’s relics were taken up
and carried to Constantinople, together with the relics of the Apostle
Andrew, in the twentieth year of the reign of Constantius.

The Life of the Evangelist John

John, the beloved disciple [see Jn. 13:23], was the son of Zebedee
and the brother of James, who was beheaded by Herod after the Passion
of the Lord [see Acts 12:1-2]. John was the last of the Evangelists to
write a Gospel. At the request of the bishops of Asia, he wrote his
Gospel to combat the teachings of Cerinthus and other heretics, and
especially the newly appeared doctrine of the Ebionites, who claimed
that Christ did not exist until Mary gave birth to Him. This prompted
John to expound on Christ’s divine generation. There is another reason
why he wrote. After examining the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke
from beginning to end, John confirmed that they had recorded the truth
[in contrast to authors of other, so-called gospels then in
circulation]. Then he composed his own Gospel, focusing on the final
year of the Lord’s earthly ministry and on His Passion. John omitted
most of the events of the previous two years because these had already
been faithfully recorded by Matthew, Mark and Luke. A careful study of
the four Gospels will resolve the apparent discrepancies between John’s
narrative and the narratives of the other three Evangelists. John also
wrote an epistle, which begins, That which was from the beginning.
This epistle is accepted as John’s by all ecclesiastical and scholarly
authorities. The other two epistles bearing his name—the first,
beginning, The elder unto the elect lady; and the second, The elder unto the well-beloved Gaius—are
considered by some to be the work of a certain John the Elder, whose
tomb (one of two bearing the name John) still exists in Ephesus to this
day. Others, however, maintain that these two epistles are also the
work of John the Evangelist. We will say more about this in the Life of
Papias, the disciple of John. [This Life was not included here]. Now in
the fourteenth year of his reign, the emperor Domitian initiated the
second major persecution of Christians (Nero’s persecution was the
first). John was banished to the island of Patmos and there wrote the
Apocalypse, later translated by Justin Martyr and Irenaeus. After
Dometian was murdered, his decrees were annulled by the Senate on
account of their inhuman cruelty. Nerva ascended the throne, and John
was allowed to return to Ephesus, where he lived until [101 AD, the
fourth year of] Trajan’s reign. During this time, John founded and
built up churches throughout Asia. In the sixty-eighth year after the
Passion of the Lord, John reposed in great old age near Ephesus.