Who Wrote The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John? The four New Testament Gospels are very popular and famous as holy scriptures for Christians.
Many Christians have actually taken it for granted that the four Gospels of The New Testament were written by The Evangelists as they are pretty sure William Shakespeare had written Othello and Hamlet!
In this article, we will be investigating the true authors of the four Gospels of the Bible.
Here we will learn the following:
Who Wrote The 4 Gospels of The Bible?
The 4 Gospels of the Bible, especially The New Testament are worldwide known to be written by Jesus’ Apostles – according to the Christians’ belief – and not a direct word from God. They believe that those apostles have witnessed the life of Jesus and wrote about his life, teachings, deeds, death, and resurrection.
However, the real authors of the 4 Gospels of The Bible are always debated whether they are having the same names attributed to these Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – or not.
In this article, we will be highlighting the most important clues about those authors of the four Gospels of the New Testament.
Facts About The Gospels Of The New Testament
There are a few considerable facts about the Gospels of the New Testament that will be helping us find a conclusion about them.
1. The Gospels in hand nowadays are translations of the primary Greek texts
However, The translation should change something either intentionally or not.
2. The Gospels Mark, Matthew, and Luke (The Synoptics) show a high level of similarity in narrative structure and content
The Gospel of Mark is the earliest, and it is argued that Matthew and Luke had taken it as reference while writing their Gosples.
3. The available manuscripts of the New Testament are not Original
The New Testament manuscripts are copies and copies of copies, and they are not original texts that have been written by original authors.
- The original manuscripts had not survived and the oldest authenticated one to be found is “Papyrus 52” that is dated back to the 2nd century.
- 80% of the New Testament Manuscripts are dated back to the 5th century or later.
4. The Gospels of the New Testament – as Christians confirm and believe – are written by the Apostles of Jesus.
If we agree to it, then we are actually confirming that the Bible is not a divinely originated context. For a scripture to be considered as divinely originated one, it should be:
- The word of God, not a narration of any human or other than God.
- An original text in its original language and not a translation or a copy of any kind of language other than the original one.
- It should be proved to be preserved since revelation and not contaminated by any means.
However it is not of our concern in this article to argue the Christians’ perception that The Bible as a “holy scripture” is written by people (the Evangelists) rather than God. In this article, we will discuss: Is the Bible really written by the Evangelists?
What really makes it hard to trace back the original authors is taking the previously mentioned facts into consideration. The four Gospels appear to be translations, copies, without any traceable originated manuscript, and they may be copied out of the Gospel of Mark.
Have the Four Gospels of the Bible been Written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John?
By reviewing those contexts and the Biblical sources historically, the answer to this question would be negating the assumption of writing those four Gospels by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. To be more accurate, we do not have any proof confirming such an assumption.
However, all clues indicate that those Gospels do not have a clear specific proof of their assumed authors or writers. It is also clear that some early Christian Scholars in early Christianity have associated popular figures with the authorship of anonymously written Gospels to let them get authority and credibility.
It would be insane to predict some texts to be holy scriptures while their genuine authors are unknown!
Following, we will be discussing these clues.
1. The Names of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John Were Likely Attached in The Second Century
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the four Gospels of The New Testament are given titles that do not relate to their attributed authors.
It was pretty apparent in the words of Ben Witherington -The New Testament Scholar concerning the Gospel of John:
“Passing the middle of the second century, there was an increasing urgency about this conclusion for the mainstream church since the Fourth Gospel seems to have been the favorite amongst the Gnostics. Therefore, apostolic authorship was deemed essential if this Gospel was to be rescued from the Heterodox. Around AD 180 in particular, Irenaeus, the great heresiarch, thus stressed that this Gospel was written in Ephesus by one of the Twelve – John the Apostle”
2. The Early Christian Scholars and Books Never Mentioned the Four Gospels in Their Current Attributed Names
The earliest scholarly writings that display awareness of the four Gospels or the writings that appear to correspond to them are Didache, Justin Martyr (155 CE), Polycarb (120-140 CE), and Ignatius (115 CE).
Those writings mentioned paragraphs that appear to correspond to today’s known Gospels. However, none of them bore any of the names Mark, Matthew, Luke, or John. They treated these Gospels anonymously and did not attribute any name to them.
Papias and Irenaeus were the earliest to attest Matthew’s authorship to his corresponding Gospel in 180 CE. If those writings were actually written by the Evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the earliest scholars would have been the best to trace those writings back to their authors. However, the earliest scholars appear to anonymously refer to the Gospel. Only recent writings attach the names of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John to the four Gospels. This actually presumes that those names were added later on.
3. The Gospels’ Texts Never or Rarely Mentions The Names Of The Attributed Authors
The Four Gospels are internally anonymous. This means that not a single author of the scripture mentions himself in the book as being the author. Thus, the text defines itself as written by Anonymous.
Away from that the Gospels’ authors are referred to in a veiled identity, the text also sometimes talks about the attributed author as a 3rd person. For example, in the Gospel of John, John was mentioned as:“ The disciple whose Jesus loved” (John 21:20,24) as if the author is not John himself.
4. The Four Gospels Did not Receive any Mention in The Early Writing of the Apostolic Fathers (60-115 CE)
There was some kind of abstaining among Christian Scholars in a certain era concerning the four Gospels. Their writings show no mention of the Evangelists nor displayed any awareness of the four Gospels.
As holy scriptures, such as the four Gospels of The New Testament that are so popular and genuine to the Christian community nowadays, they should never be neglected by early scholars except if they had not been written yet during their era.
This fact was described by the theologian Dr. Henry Dodwell as he said:
“Nowadays we have certain most authentic ecclesiastical writers of the times such as Clement of Rome, Barnabas, Hermas, Ignatius… who wrote in the order in which I have named them, and who wrote after all the writers of the New Testament. But in Hermas you will not find one passage or any mention of the New Testament [Gospels], nor in all the rest is any one of the Evangelists named.”
The first citations made from the Gospels were by Justin Martyr in 155 CE. However, Justin didn’t even mention they were ever named Mathew, Mark, Luke, or John. Moreover, he didn’t even name them as Gospels!
5. The Four Gospels Were Likely Composed After 70-100 CE
If we have a piece of writing mentioning that on April 19, 1995, a tragic truck bombed the Federal in Oklahoma by Timothy McVeigh. Then, it is quite logical that this piece of writing has not been composed prior to that date.
Likewise, the Gospels of the New Testament mention the crucifixion of Jesus around 33 C. They also refer to Romans surrounding Jerusalem in 67 CE as well as the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 CE. This logically proves that those Gospels had not been written prior to this date.
It is worth mentioning that the Gospel of Mark was agreed to be written before the three other Gospels (after 70 CE). This means the other Gospels were written many years afterwards. Mark himself died in 68 CE while the other Evangelists died years later.
If The Gospels were written by Jesus’s Apostles as a witness of Jesus’ life – as some Christians believe – they should have been written prior to that.
The Quran Vs The Four Gospels of The New Testament
The Quran is known as the holy book of Muslims. However, it is the final revelation for all mankind that completes and confirms the messages of all Prophets such as Abraham, Moses, Jesus…etc.
The Quran’s scripture is different from that of the Bible regarding many aspects:
1- Revealed By God And Dilivered By Prophet Muhmamad:
The Quran is purely the word of God, not written by humans or authored by anyone other than Him even Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) himself nor his apostles.
2- Multi Trasmitting Channels:
The Quran’s transferal is not depending only on scribes, but depending on precise oral transmission among millions of Muslims along more than 14 centuries since its revelation till now.
3- God is the Writer By Context:
The Quran’s author – God – is mentioned many times in its context. Moreover, it is apparent through the nature of speech.
4. Quran Has Accurate Manuscripts:
Original Quran Manuscripts are available in Arabic as Birmingham Quran Manuscripts, The Uthmanic Manuscripts, Ṣanʿāʾ Manuscript…etc.
Read: Stages of the Compilation of the Quran
Conclusion | Who Wrote The Four Gospels Of The New Testament?
The Four Gospels of The Bible are attributed to the Evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. However, this authorship is continuously debated and suspected.
In this article, we discussed the anonymity of the New Testament Gospels as these names were likely attributed to the Gospels later in the 2nd century.
The Quran, unlike the Bible, has authentic, original, and available sources where it was transferred orally as well as written.
If you want to know more about The Quran and The Bible, subscribe to Explore Islam Blog to stand upon the newest updates!
References:
Bart Ehrman’s textbook, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings.
Bart Ehrman lecture: Misquoting Jesus: Do We Have The Original New Testament?
Doston Jones, The Doston Jones Blog: Yes, The Four Gospels Were Originally Anonymous: Part 1.
Todd Berzon, Department of Religion, Columbia University: Historical Context Of The New Testament, 1971
