Were the 4 Gospels ANONYMOUS? 1-Minute Case

3 min readJun 30, 2024

Did Matthew, Mark, Luke and John Write the 4 Canonical Gospels?

Did Matthew, Mark, Luke and John Write the 4 Canonical Gospels? 1-Minute Case

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Imagine, with no internet or telephones, years after the Gospels were written, people in Tunisia, Italy, Egypt, Syria, France and Turkey all came to the same conclusions on who was behind the Gospels.. on 4 separate occasions and in some different languages!

The earliest manuscript evidence (eg. P4, P75, Codex Sinai., P66 and P62) and early Christian historical writings all point to the same 4 key Gospel authors! In stark contrast, anonymous book test case, Hebrews, has mixed indications of authorship amongst the manuscript evidence and early church fathers.

Besides, why choose Mark and Luke as fake names? They weren’t even disciples! Or why choose Matthew to write the Gospel to the Jews when Matthew was a tax collector and the Jews hated tax collectors? You’d expect the fake names to look more like those of the apocryphal gospels- Peter, Judas, Thomas, and Philip.

What does this mean for John? In a 2018 paper, Cambridge scholar Simon Gathercole notes 10–13 sources attesting John as Gospel author in the 2nd century- the best of the 4! For Matthew, we have 6–9, Mark 4–5 and Luke 3!

Even Bart Ehrman concedes ancient writers largely used scribes. Thus, there is no reason to think scribes could not have assisted in the process. Internal evidence shows Luke had a patron so was unlikely anonymous, seems to have been written by a doctor and Matthew by a tax collector knowledgeable about finance!

During the “first three centuries after Christ, even those identified as heretics and enemies of the Church (Pitre, Case for Jesus, p.49)” accepted the same 4 authors!