The Four Gospels

The four accounts of the life, death and resurrection of Christ that the Church received from the apostles: Matthew and John by two of the Twelve, Mark by the companion of St Peter, whose preaching Papias says he wrote down, and Luke by the physician who travelled with St Paul. St Irenaeus argued in the second century that there could be neither more nor fewer, as there are four winds and four living creatures before the throne, and the living creatures became their emblems in every church. The Gospel book is not only read: it lies on the altar, is carried out at the Little Entrance, and is kissed. Through the year the reading moves from one Gospel to another, John from Pascha to Pentecost, then Matthew, then Luke from the weeks after the Elevation of the Cross, and Mark chiefly at the weekends of Great Lent, so that the whole Church hears them in the same order at the same time.