30 minutes in Bible study for 30 days-day one

Today I watched Joyce Meyers on TV.  She extended a challenge to all her viewers to study, not read, but actually study the Bible for 30 minutes every day for the next 30 days.  I am accepting that challenge and have chosen to attempt to compare and contrast the four gospels.  My 30 minutes turned into 90 minutes before I knew it.  I spent that time getting to know the men who penned the gospels for God so we would have them to read.

I found out a couple of interesting things.  Matthew, Mark and Luke all wrote in the 60's AD. John wrote in 85 AD, 25 years later.  To me, that implies that John, the beloved disciple, might have been a lot younger than the rest, perhaps an older teenager.  Jesus may have chosen him for his youth.  It's easy to love a teenager.  The tone of his writing seems much more educated than the others.  Again, if he started his discipleship as a youth, he would have had more time to garner wisdom from his contemporaries.

All four disciples included in some form, or another, what we call "The Great Commission".
Matthew and Mark worded it almost identically, but Luke and John were more subtle in stating it.  All were in red letters in my Bible, indicating that these were the words of the Master.

Matthew and Luke expound on the birth and early years of Jesus's life where Mark and John begin with John the Baptist, Jesus's cousin, who was 6 months older than Jesus.  John and Mark focused their content on the teaching of Jesus and the last 3 years of his life.  This includes the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension into heaven.  However, when discussing the ascension, all four put it in only one verse.  None of them expounds on it in great detail.

Matthew traces Jesus's genealogy thru His earthly father, Joseph.  Luke traces it thru His mother, Mary.  Mark and John don't mention it.

They all focus most of their writing on the last three years of Jesus's life, full of the teaching of the Master.  They all have a different background; therefore, they all had different, but educated, writing styles.  Matthew was a tax collector which took some education or talent with numbers.  Mark was the nephew of Barnabas, who was a Levite.  Being a descendant of Levi and the tribe of priests, Mark probably had some religious education.  Luke was a physician.  There's no question about the amount of education he had to have.  John was present at most of the miracles performed by Jesus.  He was with Jesus in the Garden and prepared the Passover Feast.  Being at the trial of Jesus before the high priest, he naturally attended the crucifixion of Christ.  Jesus, himself, entrusted to him the care of His mother, Mary.  He witnessed the sepulcher being empty and after the resurrection, John was at the Sea of Galilee for one last time with his Lord.  John is the only one who writes about this time after the resurrection.  The rest stop with the supper the Lord blessed and then disappeared.  John was present in more of the life of Christ than any other.  He was, indeed, the beloved disciple, the disciple Jesus loved.