n.
Any of the four New Testament books narrating the life and death of Jesus .
The Gospels of Matthew , Mark , Luke , and John are placed at the beginning of the New Testament and make up about half its total text. Since the 18th century, the first three have been called the Synoptic Gospels, because they give similar accounts of the ministry of Jesus. The term is also applied to apocryphal works of the 2nd century (e.g., The Gospel of Thomas).