Its obvious when reading through the Gospels that the authors present a form of biography. However its also obvious that for anyone who
has read any modern biography that the two present very different
approaches. Most modern biographies present intricate details of the
person from their birth until their death and are much longer. Whereas
the Gospels have very little to say about Jesus from his birth until the
age of thirty, when he began his ministry and are very short in comparison. Yet
the Gospels quite clearly include biographical data about Jesus and
clearly present Jesus in a historical and geographical context. This is
demonstrated by Jesus crucifixion under Pontius Pilate whist serving in
his role as Prefect of Judea circa AD 26-36, which is included in all
four Gospels. The Gospels present us with other historical figures [King
Herod, Caiphus etc] that allow us to place where and when these things
occurred unlike ancient mythology as some would suggest the Gospels
present. It also presents Jesus in many geographically locations that
are still there today for us to validate. So its clear that although the
Gospels may differ from modern-day biographies they still attempt to
present us with accurate biographical and historically information about
Jesus.Increasingly scholars [Richard A. Burridge, Ben Witherington III, David E Aune etc] are suggesting that the Gospels are a form of ancient Hellenistic biography. I shall briefly demonstrate why this is thought to be the case.
