Here's another way to distinguish the GOSPEL from the BIBLE without repeating too much of David Stratton's answer and Flimzy's answer.
What's the difference between the Gospel and the Bible? Does one contain the other or what?
What does each one include?
The whole BIBLE is the written record of God's self disclosure to human beings. This self disclosure is
- progressive (becoming clearer with time), as God revealed himself intermittently for more than 2000 years to Israel)
- historical (empirically verifiable), as the recipient of the revelation are real people instead of mythological characters
because the Bible's God
- acts in history through his mighty works of deliverance like the exodus from Egypt (instead of aloof like Plato's god) and
- speaks through His prophets
showing God's intense love for the rebellious humans and provides a way for them to come back to their Creator: John 3:13-21.
So if the BIBLE is the parchment and ink, the GOSPEL is the long love letter written on the parchment, composed over more than 2000 year history:
- To those who repent they will recognize and respond to the GOSPEL message (the love letter) embedded in the BIBLE. They are like the seeds that fell on the good soil in the parable of the sower, Luke 8:4-15).
- But to those whose hearts are hardened to God's love, the BIBLE becomes merely human words on paper, since they will not see the GOSPEL there. It is to people like them that Jesus quoted Isa 6:9-10 in Luke 8:10 above.
Where did each one come from (or who authored each, if possible)?
Do not confuse the above meaning of the GOSPEL with the title of the 4 gospel books in the BIBLE such as the Gospel according to Matthew. Like the rest of the Bible, the 4 gospels are also written record of God's dealings with us. But it's in the 4 gospels that we have the record of the clearest and most developed self-disclosure of God, which culminated in the sending of his Son Jesus Christ to defeat DEATH, the death caused by the curse described in Genesis 3. Since Jesus needed to show how God now is ready to give humans the opportunity to reverse their cursed death-laden existence, it is no wonder that the human writers of the 4 gospels purposefully included several miracles of how Jesus raised people from death and how Jesus himself was raised from death by God.
Therefore, those who repent and be baptized will also be resurrected to eternal life after their earthly death just like Jesus. Isn't that good news? That is why the church gave the books the title gospel, from the Greek word euaggelion, which was also used by Isaiah about 500 years earlier to announce God's promise to bring about deliverance as in Isa 52:7-10 which God fulfilled in Jesus who demonstrated God's VICTORY over death before the eyes of the nations (i.e. the nations conquered by the 1st century Roman Empire).
7 How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of the messenger who brings good news,
the good news of peace and salvation,
the news that the God of Israel reigns!
8 The watchmen shout and sing with joy,
for before their very eyes
they see the LORD returning to Jerusalem.
9 Let the ruins of Jerusalem break into joyful song,
for the LORD has comforted his people.
He has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The LORD has demonstrated his holy power
before the eyes of all the nations.
All the ends of the earth will see
the victory of our God.
The 4 human authors of the 4 gospels are:
- Matthew (one of the 12 apostles), writing between 70-80 A.D. (shortly after the temple's destruction)
- Mark (disciple of Peter, one of the 12 apostles), writing mid to late 50s A.D. (about 20 years after the resurrection of Jesus)
- Luke (Paul's missionary companion), writing a little before 65 A.D. (a little before Nero)
- John (one of the 12 apostles), writing sometime after 70 A.D. but before 100 A.D. (his natural death)
Each of the four wrote their own human perspective of Jesus, who embodies the GOSPEL because Jesus himself is God who disclosed Himself as 100% human person. It's like the love letter writer HIMSELF had now come in person to deliver the message ! Isn't that grand?
Therefore, to answer your question, the GOSPEL came from God (because it's God's self disclosure) but the BIBLE (including the 4 gospels) came from the pen of several dozen human beings (mostly prophets, scribes, and apostles) who responded to God's self disclosure and wrote them down so we too can respond to God's love.