The Gospels — Translation and Transliteration

Τὰ εὐαγγέλια Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ

The good news of Jesus Christ The Venerable Bede translating the Gospel of John on his deathbed — J. Doyle Penrose, 1902

The four canonical gospels — the ones you find in the New Testament — are the literal good news about Jesus Christ and his actions. Their general content varies but little; so little, in fact, that I was rather taken aback the first time that I read the Bible, and thought that there must have occurred an error during the printing of the book — for the content was similar and, indeed, often exactly the same.

Once you start reading the Greek originals, however, you realise the often stark lingustic differences between the four Gospels — differences that are often not translated well or, indeed, at all. Thus, reading the Gospels in their original language is always, in my opinion, an endeavour that is much more enjoyable than doing so in English (or any other language).

The four canonical gospels