to Evangelical Christians who are the authors of the Gospels?

Question

I am just trying to get an understanding of Christians that read the Bible literally who they think wrote Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John

hmm as I thought

so am I to assume under this logic that the Gosples of Judas, Thomas, and Mary were also written by those people?

Answer 1

The "gospels" of Mary, Judas and Thomas were written by the gnostics. Their writing are not recognized as Holy Scripture inspired by G_d.

Our identity as christians should be in Christ and not a denomination or the Bible. The Bible merely confirms who we are in Christ. Plenty of whack jobs out their who profess to be "Bible Believing Chritiians" yet they spew venom towards those who believe differently. And some have formed Cults, very dangerous.

The Church has historical "proof" of Christ prior to the NT writings. If you are serious about learning Church History check out Wikipedia under Orthodox Christianity. The OC's have not wavered in their faith since the time of Christ and the Apostles. They remain the same Church today as they did about 2000 years ago when Christ formed the Church or Iglesia (gathering of believers). The NT Scriptures were NOT available in its entirety for about the first 200 years of Christianity. Early Christians believed in Christ through Apostolic witnesses and teachings and later written into what we call The Bible. The Church defended herself from all heresies which the gnostic gospels were considered. Any more questions please email me:-)

Peace be with you.

Answer 2

Those included in the Bible were written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.There is much more to be said of those not included i.e. Gospel of Mary Magdalene, Thomas, and Judas.

Answer 3

You will find lots of arguments either way...but what it comes down to is that there is nothing available that can verify *who* wrote the gospels, and much evidence that the attributions to specific authors occurred in the second century AD, well after the documents were written. None of the originals survive. The gospel of John was most likely the work of multiple authors, as well. See below.

Answer 4

It is very important to stress that although I am listing the actual people who penned the four books, they were all guided and directed by God's holy spirit, and did not write of their own initiative. Just as Jesus said of the things he taught:

John 8:28: "Therefore Jesus said: “When once YOU have lifted up the Son of man, then YOU will know that I am [he], and that I do nothing of my own initiative; but just as the Father taught me I speak these things."

2 Peter 1:20 & 21: "For YOU know this first, that no prophecy of Scripture springs from any private interpretation. 21 For prophecy was at no time brought by man’s will, but men spoke from God as they were borne along by holy spirit."

Matthew: written by Matthew, one of the 12 Apostles. ..written in Palestine and completed 41 C.E. It covers a period beginning

2 B.C.E. and ending 33 C.E.

Mark:( a cousin of Barnabas...Acts 4:36; Colossians 4:10) Mark is also referred to in Acts as "John who was surnamed Mark"
It was written in Rome, completed between 60-65 C.E.; it covers from 29-33 C.E.

Luke: Paul speaks of him at Colossians 4:14 as "Luke the beloved physician",he is not mentioned in the account, but ancient authorities are agreed that he was the writer. There are many many reasons why, one in particular being that Luke uses more than 300 medical terms or words to which he gives a medical meaning that are not used in the same way (if they are used at all) by other writers of the Christian Greek Scriptures......
Luke was written in Caesarea. The writing was completed between 56-58 C.E.. The time covered was from 3 B.C.E. to 33 C.E.

John was written by the Apostle John, in or near Ephesus. It was completed 98 C.E. Time covered was from 29 to 33 C.E.

Answer 5

Gratvol, we believe that God inspired the Gospels. This is explained by the Apostle Paul at 2 Timothy 3:16: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness ..." As such, we believe that the entire Bible, from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21, is inerrant.

Peace.

EDIT: The "Gospels" of Judas, Thomas and Mary are considered "non-cannonical" by the vast majority of Christians and Messianic Jews. As such, they are completely rejected. This is because they were written centuries after Jesus ascended to Heaven AND because they conflict with known cannonical writings.

Answer 6

the oldest Gospel is beleived to have been written around 70AD - 40 years after Jesus allegedly lived and died... Life expectancy in those days was 40-50 years.

So chances are, those Gospels were not written by the same people who walked with Jesus (if any of it really occurred in the first place). And if they were, then they were embellished with the fading memories of old men...and we know how accurate that can be - NOT!

Answer 7

The authors are

Mathew, Mark , Luke and John

Answer 8

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John

Answer 9

Mark was written by John Mark. He was a youth at the time Jesus lived, and actually meet Jesus on at least one occasion. It was at his (parent's) home where the Last Supper took place. When Jesus and his disciples left to go to the garden, Mark followed him, dressed only a loin clothe. In the garden he was caught by the men who came to arrest Jesus, stripped, and sent off naked into the night (See Mark 15 for the story). John Mark traveled for a brief time with the apostle Paul on Paul's first missionary journey. He was taken along because of his expertise in telling the story of Jesus - which at that time (about 15 years after the resurrection) has not yet been written down. He later traveled with the apostle Peter, who considered him like a son. Late in Paul's life, Mark would rejoin him. Mark's gospel appears to have been the first one of the four written, as 90% of the material in Matthew is retold from Mark, and 8)5 of Luke is retold from Mark. He appears to have written between 55-and 60 AD (about 25-30 years after the time Jesus lived). He is quoted by other writers as early as the 90's AD.

Matthew Levi was one of the 12 disciples. He is the tax collecter that Jesus called to follow him. The Bible gives no details of his life beyond the gospels and a single reference in the opening chapters of Act. When you read the gospel of Matthew, he will notice that he includes over 90 prophecies from the Old Testament that Jesus fulfilled during his lifetime. It appears that Matthew was trying to convert Jews with his writings, so it is traditionally taught that he at a ministry to the Jews, while Peter and Paul went to the non-jews. Because of the many links in his book to the Old Testament, Matthew's gospel was placed first to serve as a bridge between the two testaments. (The others are by length). Matthew appears to have been written before 70 AD, when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. The destruction of the temple was nothing Old Testament prophecy, but Matthew does not listed it as one of the fulfilled prophecies. So the book must have been written before 70 AD.

Luke was a gentile doctor, probably from Antioch as there is were we first meet him in the Bible, who was converted by Paul. He travels with Paul during the last third of the book of Acts, often saying "we went here" and "we did this" rather than "Paul did this". He did not know Jesus during his lifetime. It is also the only non-jewish author in the New Testament. If you read the first 5 verses of Luke, he explains that in order to be sure that they things they were being taught about Jesus was true, he took the time to research, interview, etc. His gospel is the results of his research. It appears to have been written before Paul's death in the year 67 AD, as it is actually the first half of a single work that also includes the book of Acts. Acts ends around 64AD with Paul still alive.

The first three gospels were written very close to each other and are very similar in content and style. The record Jesus' words and deed with like commentary or explaination. No so with the last gospel. John was written by John Zebedee, one of the 12 original disciples. He appears to have been the youngest of the disciples, and lived to around the year 100AD. He is also the author of the book of Revelation which he wrote around 95 AD.

John had the miracle of 20/20 hindsight. He knew what the other three authors had already written 30+years before. So his gospel is full of stories that others did not tell. He adds details the others did not include. And he adds a lot of commentary and explaination to the teachings. Everyone of the strories John includes was also a rebuke of one of the heresies that was being to show up in the church at that time.

We are fortunate to have four historical accounts of the life of Jesus. One by a member of the inner circle (Matthew) who can tells what how it looked from the inside. One by a casual follower (Mark) who can tell us how it looked from the outside. One by a scholar who took the time to carefully research (Luke) and one from an elder who had spend nearly a century living the teachings of Jesus and coming to understand them (John). It makes the life of Jesus one of the most documented events in human history.

Answer 10

Matthew was written by Matthew himself (mid 50's A.D.) Being a tax collector he was very articulate and literate.

Mark was written by Mark, an acquaintance of St. Peter as it was dictated to him by Peter (mid tolate 50'sA.D.) Peter being a fisherman by trade was not as literate as he needed to be to write on his own.

Luke was a doctor and friend of St, Paul (aropund 70A.D.) He used existing Gospels to research and write his Gospel.

John was written by a scribe (secretary in todays terms) as dictated by John (95A.D.) John was believed to have lived to nearly age 100. John was poorly educated and barely literate. This shows if you read his epistles, they are short and simply written.