If Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John weren't written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...?

Question

how does/would Christianity change? Would this affect your beliefs?

I would have said "since" instead of "if" but I know many would argue...

Answer 1

Um....they weren't written by any of those authors.

Answer 2

KZ makes a good point. The content is what's important. However, some of the content is less than appealing, so Christians need to validate it with "But Jesus said so!" If they can't assert that Jesus said so because the supposed authors of the Bible were not who they claimed to be, that would lessen the validity of the Bible.

And it does, BTW.

[But then again, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John don't even claim to have personally known Jesus, so there is little validity to it anyway.]

Answer 3

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were all illiterate so obviously their Gospels weren't written by them.

The best evidence I have seen suggest that the gospels were passed on by word of mouth for at least 600 years before any attempt was made to commit them to print. No doubt the stories were embellished to suit the needs of the teller.

I would treat anything from the New Testament with a very large pinch of salt.

Ian M

Answer 4

It's highlty unlikely the actual apostles wrote the Gospels, in my opinion, more likely they were recorded by students in the school of a given apostle. The tradition of assigning the authorship as it has been goes back to before 100 AD, however and there is new evidence from among several fragments of Matthew found in the Dead Sea Scrolls that suggests Matthew was written around 40 AD. Given that Matthew is known to have copied from Mark, it stands to reason Mark is even older, which puts it fairly close to Jesus' death.

That said, it seems clear enough that the early Christians did not expect many years to pass befor ethe world ended. I consider it unlikely these documents were writenn for posterity given there would have been no expectation of a future audience. Thus even if the dates of authorship are 20-30 years later that this, as has been thought by academics of late, I would still argue that does not suggest the story is somehow less true in its essentials. Worst case, it records what people believed within at least a generation of Jesus.

Answer 5

They were written by men named Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but these authors didn't know Jesus when He was on earth. There were apostles named Matthew and John, but they are different men than the ones who wrote the Gospels. Luke was a priest, I believe. I don't know about Mark.

Answer 6

It wouldn't change Christianity. The Christian religion did just fine for six hundred years before anyone even felt the need to define an official canon of Scripture. The titles of the Gospels were traditional to begin with.

Answer 7

They weren't. One of the jobs of the Council of Nicea was to determine which versions of the Gospels were the most authoritative. The question is, in less than 3 centuries, how could there be so many versions of each if they were originally written by 1 man each. The answer is that the Gospels were oral renderings of the alleged events that were then written down by people in later generations.

Answer 8

Matthew was dictated to a scribe by Matthew. In Hebrew
Mark is Peter's story, written by Mark. Hebrew
Luke the physician wrote to the Gentiles in Greek.
John was the youngest and gave a young emotional account of about two weeks of Jesus's ministry. Very prolific author though. In Greek I think.
No my relationship with Jesus is a personal connection.
If God wanted it to be said different He would have had them say it different.
Who do you think wrote the gospels?
This would be a good time for you to study the prophets.

Answer 9

I believe most scholars agree that none were written by actual disciples(there was no disciple named Mark or Luke)...But tales handed down by these disciples. Luke being posibly a companion of Paul and Mark being an Evangelist.

Answer 10

Actually, there is a possibility that not all of the Gospels were written by the men whose names the Gospels bear. Scholars have been aware of this for years, if not centuries. It doesn't affect Christianity or Christian beliefs at all.

..

Answer 11

These men were used by God himself as his Spirit influenced and inspired them to write as they did. If they didn't write it then the Holy Spirit would have influenced someone else, Therefore, there would be not difference in the scripture and no change in the true doctrines of God's true religion.

God bless.