Here is a quote that captures a little bit of what I regard to be helpful for my doubt - historical rootedness. When it all gets a bit mystical and internal the line of thought Paul Barnett starts directs me to the reality of Jesus in the dusty streets and villages of the Middle East, loving people and getting in trouble with the authorities.
It is evident that the Gospels were after Jesus' death and from a postresurrection perspective. Each writer has a view of Jesus that informs the outline of his work and his emphasis. As each begins his Gospel he knows the end of Jesus' story. Moreover, each has formed convictions about Jesus that permeate his text. At the same time, however, each writer confronts the reader with Jesus as a figure of history, who lived and died in particular circumstances.
Readers of the Gospels see Jesus in the world of Galilee, Gaulanitis, Peraea and Judea. He is circumscribed by identifiable historical figures like John the baptizer, Herod the tetrarch of Galilee-Peraea, Caiaphas the high priest of the temple in Jerusalem and Pontius Pilate the governor of Judea. The Jesus the reader hears is addressing that situation in the late twenties and early thirties, not the situation of the churches thirty or more years later. The Gospel writers' perspective is of the Lord who is timeless in his significance but time bound historically speaking. Thus the Gospels are documents of and for faith and at the same moment documents of and for history (p. 171).
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