Friday, June 28, 2013

Is the Gospel of Matthew Written by Matthew, Mark Gospel by Mark? Luke Gospel by Luke? John Gospel by John?

  • Answerer 1
    Might as well go straight to the source...

    From the Catholic Encyclopedia;

    "The first four historical books of the New Testament are supplied with titles (Euaggelion kata Matthaion, Euaggelion kata Markon, etc.), which, however ancient, do not go back to the respective authors of those sacred writings. The Canon of Muratori, Clement of Alexandria, and St. Irenæus bear distinct witness to the existence of those headings in the latter part of the second century of our era. Indeed, the manner in which Clement (Stromata I.21), and St. Irenæus (Against Heresies III.11.7) employ them implies that, at that early date, our present titles to the Gospels had been in current use for some considerable time. Hence, it may be inferred that they were prefixed to the evangelical narratives as early as the first part of that same century. That, however, they do not go back to the first century of the Christian era, or at least that they are not original, is a position generally held at the present day. It is felt that since they are similar for the four Gospels, although the same Gospels were composed at some interval from each other, those titles were not framed, and consequently not prefixed to each individual narrative, before the collection of the four Gospels was actually made. Besides, as well pointed out by Prof. Bacon, "the historical books of the New Testament differ from its apocalyptic and epistolary literature, as those of the Old Testament differ from its prophecy, in being invariably anonymous, and for the same reason. Prophecies whether in the earlier or in the later sense, and letters, to have authority, must be referable to some individual; the greater his name, the better. But history was regarded as a common possession. Its facts spoke for themselves. Only as the springs of common recollection began to dwindle, and marked differences to appear between the well-informed and accurate Gospels and the untrustworthy . . . did it become worth while for the Christian teacher or apologist to specify whether the given representation of the current tradition was 'according to' this or that special compiler, and to state his qualifications". It thus appears that the present titles of the Gospels are not traceable to the Evangelists themselves."
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  • Answerer 2
    They Were Borne Along by Holy Spirit

    Source(s):

    http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/s/r1/lp-e?q=bible+writers&p=par
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  • Answerer 3
    Yeah. In fact, the writing you see in your bible today is actually hand-written by them!

    Source(s):

    Certified furry!
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  • Answerer 4
    Well an example from Matthew.

    “And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he said unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him.” (Matthew 9:9).

    See what pronoun is there , should not that been "I" instead of he.

    Above verse does not even contain the words of the Jesus either, it is a third person an eye witness of the event.

    Source(s):

    http://buyaathaillah.wordpress.com/chris…
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  • Answerer 5
    Yes they were individually, But they were all inspired by God.

    Source(s):

    A Friend
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  • Answerer 6
    Yeah. They may not have written them out in their own hand, but dictated them to a scribe, but it's still the same.
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  • Answerer 7
    I would say yes, there is plenty of controversy over this, many bible critics. but you get to a point where you know the word of God and know these were written by the authors that the gospel currently have.
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  • Answerer 8
    No one took dictation when they spoke and the Apostles never attended school, so they lacked reading and writing skills.
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  • Answerer 9
    The only firsthand testimony that we have about the life and teachings of Jesus comes from the four Gospels. Who were the people that wrote these books?

    The authorship is credited to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. There are three basic reasons why we believe the men bearing their names wrote the four gospels.


    MORE HERE:

    http://www.blueletterbible.org/faq/don_s…

    The evidence is clear and convincing. The traditional belief that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wrote the four gospels is the only view that fits the known facts.
     
  • Answerer 10
    A lot of people say that they are not. The synoptic gospels are either drawn, at least in part, from the same source, of from different eyewitnesses of the same events. The Gospel of John deals with Jesus' Judean ministry.
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  • Answerer 11
    Of course not.

    First of all, the Gospels originally appeared in Greek and the disciples would have been illiterate peasants who spoke Aramaic.

    Second, they did not appear for at least 1 generation after the supposed events.

    Third, all of the Gospels are derived from Mark and Mark gives all the signs of being a work of fiction, with ideas and motifs directly taken from The Odyssey.

    Fourth, the oldest of the books of the new testament are Paul's letters and he makes no mention of the miracles, deeds or sayings of Jesus. When he references "the scriptures" you must keep in mind that the Gospels had not been written, so he was referring to the old testament (which itself has very dubious claims at being anchored in real events).

    Furthermore, there are mistakes in translation in new testament references to the old testament because whoever wrote the gospels could not read Hebrew and had to rely upon the Greek translation in the Septuagint, which contains numerous well-documented translation errors.

    You can confirm any of the above in the library of any university with a humanities department.
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  • Answerer 12
    No. The gospels do not say who wrote them. It was common, extremely common, for ancient writers to attribute a work of literature to a more famous individual. Since all books had to be copied by hand, and this was long and tedious and expensive, claiming your work was by someone more famous would make the book more likely to be copied. The earliest gospel was written no earlier than 40 years after Jesus. We know this because the earliest gospel mentions the Jewish temple being destroyed, which didn't happen until 70 CE. That would have put the original apostles into old age, or they were already dead. In all likelihood it was the followers of the followers of Jesus, at best, who wrote down stories that were passed down orally. In all probability it was probably even later generations. The reason it took the early church so long to write their stories down was because they absolutely thought the world was going to end at any moment, so there wasn't initially a need to write the stories down because making copies of books took so long and was expensive. It was far quicker, and cheaper, at that time to just go out and preach to people.
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  • Answerer 13
    .
    MATTHEW: Author: Matthew
    Matthew was a disciple of Jesus and a former publican (tax collector). Mark and Luke refer to him as Levi.
    Matthew’s object seems to be to show that Jesus was the long-expected Messiah, that His life was the fulfilling of the Old Testament prophecies relating to the Messiah. Thus it is that, more than a dozen times after describing some event in Jesus’ life, he makes a statement such as, “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets.” By one count Matthew refers to the kingdom 55 different times, and the “kingdom of heaven” 35 times. It is said that Matthew quotes more from the Old Testament than any other New Testament writer.
    Of the 1 5 parables recorded by Matthew all but three begin: “The kingdom of heaven is like . . .
    Matthew and Luke are the only two who wrote of the Genealogy of Christ, but with noticeable differences. In Matthew His Genealogy is traced back to Abraham, father of the Jewish nation (Matthew 1:1-17); Luke traces it back to Adam (Luke 3:38), the father of the human family, showing that He belongs to each one of us, as well as to the Jewish nation.
    Only Matthew records the visit of the Wise Men from the East at Jesus’ birth and of the flight into Egypt.

    MARK: Author: Mark
    Mark is described as the son of a woman named Mary (Mark 12: 12), and a cousin of Paul’s missionary companion Barnabas (Col. 4: 10). Mark begins his Gospel by introducing John the Baptist as the herald of the Messiah. He demonstrates that Jesus is the Son of God by the works He accomplished during His brief stay on earth.
    In the King James Version all but four of the sixteen chapters of Mark begin with the word and illustrating how Christ’s life and service are a complete, perfect whole. The word and is said to appear 1,375 times in this short book.
    Mark is the shortest of all the Gospels, and very little is found here that is not in the other Gospels. It is the first of the four Gospels to be written.
    Mark, who depicts Jesus as a man of action, records twenty of Jesus’ miracles in detail, but only four parables.


    LUKE: Author: Luke
    Luke was a Gentile physician, and sometime companion of Paul (Acts 16:10-24; 2 Tim. 4:11; Col. 4:14). It is obvious from his writings that he was an educated man, with a wide cultural back-ground. Scholars believe he wrote for Greek readers. Thus, writing for Gentiles, he traces Christ’s ancestry back to Adam, the father of the race. Matthew, writing for Jews, traces it back to Abraham.
    Luke, the longest of the Gospels, gives the longest account of Jesus and the only one of His childhood, including His visit to the Temple at the age of 12. Only he records the visit of the shepherds at His birth.
    Luke’s portrayal of Jesus as one with humanity, sympathetic to human needs, is in keeping with Paul’s description of him as “the beloved physician” (Col. 4:14). Thus he relates the stories of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:33); the publican (chapter 18:13); the prodigal (chapter 15:11-24); Zacchaeus (chapter 19:2); and the thief on the cross (chapter 23:43).
    He alone tells of Jesus’ beholding the city of Jerusalem and weeping over it, of His bloody sweat in Gethsemane, and of His showing mercy to the dying thief on the cross.

    JOHN: Author: John
    John, a Galilean from Bethsaida, on the Sea of Galilee, was the youngest of Jesus’ disciples. His Gospel, written when he was very old, toward the close of the first century, is quite different from the others. One reason for this is that he describes Jesus’ Judean ministry, whereas the other writers deal with His Galilean.
    John begins his book by turning our minds to “the beginning” of Creation, and portrays Jesus as God, before all things, the Creator of all, who “was made flesh, and dwelt among us.”
    The key word is believe, which appears in the book almost 100 times. The key test is chapter 20:31. The purpose of the book is to lead men to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God.
    John alone relates the story of Christ’s first miracle at Cana, the interview with Nicodemus, the raising of Lazarus, His commending His mother to the care of John at the cross, and the triumphant shout, “It is finished.”
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  • Answerer 14
    Yes, basically. However, the actual writing was often carried out by disciples of the disciple.

    Interestingly, with the recent scholarship on the Dead Sea Scrolls, new evidence points to the authorship of the traditional authors. Rev. Reginald Fuller, an Episcopalian and Professor Emeritus at Virginia Theological Seminary, with Dr. Carsten Thiede, has analyzed three papyrus fragments from the 26th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew; the fragments date to the year 40, which would indicate that the author was an eyewitness to our Lord's public ministry. Father Jose O'Callaghan, S.J., studying fragments of the Gospel of Mark and using paleographic means, dated them at 50, again indicating an eyewitness author. Finally, Episcopalian Bishop John Robinson also posited from his research that all four Gospels were written between 40 and 65, with John's being possibly the earliest. This new research is not only questioning some of the modern scholarship [and dating] but also supporting the traditional authorship.

    Cheers,
    Bruce

    Source(s):

    http://catholiceducation.org/articles/re…
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  • Answerer 15
    According to the scholars, probably not...

    It was not unusual at the time to name writings after others... no one knows for sure...

    And since they were written so long after the fact, the ideas of direct quotation is also highly unlikely... and they have not been able to verify very much of any of the claims...

    IMHO
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  • Answerer 16
    None of the disciples wrote anything, because they were illiterate fishermen, who spoke Aramaic. But, supposedly, they told tales that were retold by others, and after many versions and many retellings, (for a few generations) were finally written down by someone, translated into Greek. That was just the start of the long and tortured process that lead to the words you read in English, today, in the Bible.

    --
    Regards,

    John Popelish

    Source(s):

    "How the bible got changed. Bart Ehrman's 'Misquoting Jesus' Speech at Stanford University"
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0zWbL8Uq…
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