Tamara: what to expect: what are the Gospels? Fairy tales? Novels? Ancient biographies?

According to the text the Gospels are a sort of ancient biography that is not strictly a biographical account but also encompasses the spiritual nature of the central figure, Jesus Christ. Though it is now thought to be a biography it was initially believed to be a unique kind of literature with one sole purpose. But scholars soon came to understand that it was a Greco-Roman biography and therefore is different from what we understand as a biography. 

My opinion differs from the book. To me the Gospels represent a mixing of most literary genres. It is a book of belief and therefore carries those very important connotations. It is part fairy tale, part novel, and part biography. Like most fairy tales, that are for the most part, degeneration of older myths, it has a prince, through which salvation is achieved, and all the symbolism that is common in fairy tales. It is part novel for it has enough of a plot-building, from the exposition of the characters to the climax. I think this in part because the authors wanted to keep the readers interested and entertained. This is giving the writers a license which I believe they took. The biographical part of it consists in that it follows a life story and only passes from that to describe the spiritual life of Christ.  

There may have very well been a man by the name of Jesus who was crucified whether he was the son of God , or whether there is a God, is a matter for another discussion. His sayings and works have probably been taken far enough out of context and changed to fit personal or communal reasons that we have a distorted telling of what really happened. If there was divine inspiration it could vary from a bad acid trip, in some sort of shamanic ritual, to pure addiction by the writer or some divine force I can't recognize.

But we have the Gospels and they provide, a biased, distorted insight into the past and the beginnings of the church.