The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. By the "Gospel" of Jesus Christ here is evidently meant the blessed story which our evangelist is about to tell of His life, ministry, death, resurrection and glorification, and of the begun gathering of believers in His name. The abruptness with which he announces his subject, and the energetic brevity with which, passing by all preceding events, he hastens over the ministry of John and records the baptism and temptation of Jesus-as if impatient to come to the public life of the Lord of glory-have often been noticed as characteristic of this Gospel; a Gospel whose direct, practical power and singularly vivid setting impart to it a preciousness special to itself. What strikes everyone is, that though the briefest of all the Gospels, this is in some of the principal scenes of our Lord's history the fullest. But what is not so obvious is, that wherever the finer and subtler feeling of humanity, or the deeper and more special hues of our Lord's character were brought out, these, though they should be lightly passed over by all the other Evangelist, are sure to be found here, and in touches of such quiet delicacy and power, that though scarce observed by the cursory reader, they leave indelible impressions upon all the thoughtful, and furnish a key to much that is in the other Gospels.
These few opening words of the Second Gospel are enough to show, that though it was the purpose of this Evanglist to record chiefly the outward and palpable facts of our Lord's public life, he recognized in Him, in common with the Fourth Evangelist, the glory of the Only begotten of the Father.