A gospel (from Old English, gōd spell "good news")
is a writing that describes the life of Jesus. The word is primarily used to
refer to the four canonical gospels: the Gospel of Matthew, Gospel of Mark,
Gospel of Luke and Gospel of John, probably written between AD 65 and 80. They
appear to have been originally untitled; they were quoted anonymously in the
first half of the second century (i.e. 100 - 150) but the names by which they
are currently known appear suddenly around the year 180. The first canonical
gospel written is thought by most scholars to be Mark (c 65-70). (Wikipedia,
the online free encyclopedia)