MATTHEW wrote to a Jewish audience who was beginning to wonder whether or not Jesus was indeed the promised Messiah. This is why Matthew took the genealogy of Jesus back to Abraham. Matthew wanted the Jewish people who were questioning Jesus to know that He was of Abraham’s seed. It was Matthew who connected more of the prophecies about the Messiah to Jesus than any other Gospel writer was. Matthew, more than any of the other Gospel writers, showed that Jesus not only fulfilled Jewish prophecies about the Messiah, but also lived out an extension of Israel’s mission. MARK was writing as a pastor to a hurting people, Christians in the city of Rome, most of who were gentles. Because Mark wrote primarily to Gentile Christians, he did not include Jewish law customs as much as the other Gospel writers did LUKE produced the longest writing. It is believed to be a part of the book of Acts. Luke wrote to Theophilus, who had become his close friend. Theophilus was a Gentile who wanted to know who was correct--- the Jewish people, who claimed that to be converted to God one had to become a Jew, or the Christians, who claimed that no people barriers, including race, stood in the way of a person becoming a child of God. JOHN wrote his Gospel toward the end of the first century, when it was becoming extremely tough for Christians because sever persecutions had started against the Christians. Not much is said about the Gospel of John in our study book, The Synoptic Gospels by Keith F. Nickles, other than that the Gospel of John appears to have been the last of the four Gospels written. Also, that the Gospel stands in a class by itself. John is described as a highly creative theologian... The Gospel of John was produced among a group of early Christians, which were quite different from the Christian communities for which the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke were written. The Gospel of John appears to be the only Gospel, which clearly portrays the ministry of Jesus as exiting over three years. Perhaps we will offer a new study on the Gospel of John at another time.