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Author | Topic: Authorship of the Gospels | |||||||||||||||||||
GDR Member Posts: 6202 From: Sidney, BC, Canada Joined: Member Rating: 2.1 |
In a coffee house forum I posted this. Ramoss then posted this which is in line with ringo's response.
ramoss writes: That is the claim. I do not see any evidence that claim is actually true. If fact, the internal evidence shows the first is not true, and shows it is highly unlikely for the second. It isn't actually Bible Study as such but that is the only forum that I can see that fits this subject. The individual who has done the greatest amount of research into the authorship of the Gospels is Richard Bauckham. I have read his book Jesus and the Eyewitnesses where with extensive research Bauckham provides a detailed account of his conclusions as to who wrote the 4 Gospels.One of the sources that he uses is Papius born 70AD was a contemporary of the surviving disciples in their later lives as well as with Polycarp. Here is one of the remaining pieces of what Papius wrote. quote: Papius wrote this about the authorship of Mark. quote:Papius also wrote the following. quote:So, Mark was written by a disciple of Peter with Peter as the source of his material and of course quite possibly other disciples as well. The author who wrote both Luke and Acts starts off his Gospel this way. Luke 1 writes:
We learn from the book of Acts, 2nd Timothy etc, that Luke was a travelling companion of Paul. As such, he would not only have the accounts of Paul, but would in all likelihood have had contact with other disciples. Luke was a gentile and Theophilus was likely a rich patron of Luke. In the third century Eusbius wrote this 1 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3 With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.quote:When that was written Esuebius would have still had all the writings of both Papius, Polycorp and Irenaius to refer to concerning the source of the Gospels. Of the 4 Gospels, Matthew is the one that is the least clear as to authorship. Tradition was from very early on that it was done by the apostle Matthew the tax collector but there is nothing in the Gospel itself that gives any indication of authorship. Papius writes this: quote:As shown in a previous quote Papius was careful to use the attestations of only the eyewitnesses so although not conclusive it is reasonable evidence that it was Matthew the tax collector who wrote the Gospel attributed to him. Although the fact that it was originally written in Hebrew and later translated into Greek would also lend itself to attributing it to Matthew the tax collector. However Matthew was a fairly common name. The book of John ends this way. John 21 writes:
The author is declaring the fact that he was a disciple. It has traditionally been assumed from fairly early on that John is the brother of James the sons of Zebedee. Recent scholarship, (particularly that of Richard Bauckham) has not ruled that out but shows that it is quite likely wrong. Bauckham with considerable scholarship behind it believes that the disciple is John the Elder that is referred to by Papius. Here is a piece of Papius’ writing that I quoted earlier. 15 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?Yes, Lord, he said, you know that I love you. Jesus said, Feed my lambs. 16 Again Jesus said, Simon son of John, do you love me?He answered, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Jesus said, Take care of my sheep. 17 The third time he said to him, Simon son of John, do you love me?Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, Do you love me? He said, Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you. Jesus said, Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go. 19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, Follow me! 20 Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, Lord, who is going to betray you?) 21 When Peter saw him, he asked, Lord, what about him? 22 Jesus answered, If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me. 23 Because of this, the rumor spread among the believers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? 24 This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true. 25 Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.Papius writes: There are 2 Johns mentioned who were both disciples although only John son of Zebedee was one of the 12. In addition to the 12, there were a number of disciples who travelled with Jesus. John the Elder would have been one of those. Evidence shows (using Bauckham as my source) that it is very likely that John the Elder was a Judean Jew and would have had a slightly different experience of Jesus than the Galilean disciples would have had. And if by chance anyone who had been in attendance on the elders arrived, I made enquiries about the words of the elderswhat Andrew or Peter had said, or Philip or Thomas or James or John or Matthew or any other of the Lord’s disciples, and whatever Aristion and John the Elder, the Lord’s disciples, were saying.Also the Johannine epistles believed to have been written by the same author are identified in the opening of both the 2nd and 3rd epistle as being written by John the Elder. So, I hold to my statement that the Gospels were written by an eyewitness in the case of John or from authors using eyewitnesses as the source for the synoptic Gospels.He has told you, O man, what is good ; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8
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GDR Member Posts: 6202 From: Sidney, BC, Canada Joined: Member Rating: 2.1 |
PaulK writes: This is taken out of the quote I used earlier. Not a complete reply at all, but, Papias claims to have talked with people who talked to the Disciples, but with the probable exception of John, doesn’t claim to have talked with the Disciples themselves.quote:You are largely correct. He did speak directly to two of the disciples who were with Jesus, John the Elder and Ariston. The others were those who had had direct contact with several of the apostles. PaulK writes: The quotes are from the works of Eusebius. I simply thought that one would help to confirm the other. The two quotes concerning Mark you present from Papias seen to be different renditions of the same material so I have no idea why you think they are distinct. You give no source for either.Irenaeus wrote the following in a letter. quote: That is probably the longest run-on sentence I have ever encountered. Polycarp was a companion of Papias and so would have had similar contact with the disciples and with others who were the disciples of the disciples.It is interesting that in 1 Peter 5, Peter writes the following. quote:If he needed Silas’ help to write this epistle it would make sense that he would need someone to write His Gospel as well. Maybe in his son Mark, (whether or not that is a literal son or not is unknown), we have a candidate for the one who with Peter’s testimony wrote the Gospel of Mark. PaulK writes:
Luke is writing to a specific individual, Theophilus, who he is obviously well acquainted with, and who would know what the sources were. Also, of course he denotes the sources as eyewitnesses and servants of the Word. While the author of Luke talks of investigation he never cites sources - unlike the better ancient historians. This part may also be boiler-plate text and not really truthful. The differences with Matthew are also quite serious and call into question the reliability of both Gospels. Luke is also mentioned by Paul in 3 different epistles as being his companion on his journey. There is also the question of whether the author used a common source with Matthew (called Q) or simply took material from Matthew and rewrote it. One of the major arguments for Q is that the author of Luke would not do such rewriting, but since he appears to have done so in the case of the Olivet Discourse - despite it’s appearance in Mark - I don’t think that argument is tenable.It isn’t really known which was written first, Matthew or Luke. However, Richard Bauckham who is considered the world’s leading scholar on the subject postulates that Matthew used Luke as a resource which in essence would make Luke the much speculated on Q and would also deal with your point. Bauckham writes this: quote: PaulK writes: Well we know that he spoke to at least two as noted above. When we read Polycarp it sounds as if there were likely more but that is speculative. We do know that he spoke to numerous people who had had direct contact with the eyewitnesses.
Papias explicitly sought out second-hand accounts and apparently did not speak to many eye witnesses at all. PaulK writes:
I’d suggest that this isn’t a problem. Matthew was probably written by the disciple in Hebrew, and then when it was translated into Greek the translator would have used Markan material, and if Bauckham is correct Lukan material as well, to put together the Gospel as we have it now. Note also that the document he ascribes to Matthew is written in the Hebrew tongue which is a serious problem since the Gospel according to Matthew we have is written in Greek. Moreover the literary dependency between Mark and Matthew mean that it is not possible that the two are independent creations. Either Matthew was always written in Greek, and derives large amounts of its material from Mark - or if you want Papias account of Matthew to be accurate Mark is almost completely derived from a translation of Matthew, and not Peter’s teaching at all. If Bauckmann did not deal with this issue I cannot see that his book can be trusted at all - however I believe in this case the fault is yours.Irenaius who was a disciple of Polythorpe wrote this in the 2nd century, concerning the authorship of the Gospels. This draws a fairly straight line from Polycorp who had direct contact with at least 2 of the disciples and probably more, to Irenaius his disciple. quote: PaulK writes: Bauckham writes this about that. The bolded material from John clearly continues We know that his testimony is true - people do not generally speak of themselves in the third person so it seems that this part is an insertion by another writer. That this writer believed that some of the text came from the Beloved Disciple is not the same thing as the author himself claiming to be the Beloved Disciple.quote:Bauckham then goes on to say that the we in the quote is likely being used in the same way so that we would normally write I’ instead of we. Edited by GDR, : fixed small error in quoteHe has told you, O man, what is good ; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8
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GDR Member Posts: 6202 From: Sidney, BC, Canada Joined: Member Rating: 2.1 |
PaulK writes: This is from Luke 10: Aristion is obscure, not mentioned in the Gospels or any other source (excepting a late 10th Century Armenian version of Mark) so we have to question if he actually was a disciple.quote:Jesus had many disciples that don’t get mentioned anywhere. In general the 12 were a specific group of disciples designated as apostles. PaulK writes: I gave two quotes as it confirms a consistent message from Papias. As for the translation I simply copied it off the internet. It was consistent with Richard Bauckham’s translation in his tome Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. If you really want I can copy that out for you.
How can it possibly confirm it? And why do you try to present them as two different texts when they are obviously versions of the same one? Moreover your source is not Eusebius, since Eusebius did not write in English and I do not believe you did the transla tion. PaulK writes: Well it can’t be proven but the author does identify himself as Peter whether or not he used a scribe to record it or not. Also it is interesting to note that it is addressed to 5 colonies established by the Romans which would in all likelihood include a large number of members of the Jewish Diaspora. This would indicate that Peter wrote this letter while in Rome which is consistent with what we know of his ministry.
It is very unlikely that Peter wrote 1 Peter.PaulK writes: Well even if they aren’t Pauline, Luke is still recorded in the 3 books as a companion of Paul.
One or two, more likely since 2 Timothy is unlikely to be Pauline and Colossians is doubted.PaulK writes: It isn’t a matter of copying, but of using the earlier material as a resource along with your own experiences of the eyewitnesses. The n you have Matthew intentionally disagreeing with Luke - and even more certainly writing in Greek, and even more certainly not an eye witness. Even if you insist that an eye witness would copy someone else’s account - someone who wasn’t even a witness - we still can’t count that copying as eye witness material.We also know that the writer of Matthew was probably an eye witness, (Matthew the tax collector), and that Luke not only travelled with Paul but also had direct contact with the first apostles. This is from Acts 21, as written by Luke. quote:As we can tell by how Luke opens his book that he is writing putting together a Gospel from a variety of sources of oral accounts from the eye witnesses would be used, knowledge passed on by Paul as well as from Mark and possibly Matthew. PaulK writes: It isn’t just what Polycarp writes but information that is directly copied from the works of Papias.
We don’t know that Aristion is an eyewitness and I don’t think that we should trust an impression you get from Polycarp over Papias’ own words.PaulK writes:
I’m agnostic on whether Luke or Matthew came first. However, there is no reason to suppose that Matthew couldn’t have used Mark and/or Luke in addition to his own eye witness experience. They would have been with Jesus at different times and would have had different experiences. The difference would come as Matthew was first written in the Hebrew language and intended primarily for a Jewish audience, whereas Mark and Luke were written for a broader audience. When Matthew writes in, what was probably Aramiaic, using his own eye witness experience and using the Greek of the Mark and possibly Luke, he would have as N T Wright puts it:
Which means that Matthew’s work is largely lost. Moreover the idea that an eye-witness would construct his account by copying - and translating! - two second-hand (at best!) sources is bizarre indeed.So, no, your’ solution only created more problems. If you want to say that Matthew was an eye-witness account, the author cannot copy material from Mark or Luke. And no translator can either because copying material from another work entirely isn’t translation. PaulK writes: The source was directly from Polycarp not Papias, although they were contemporaries. There is no reason at all to think that he was referring to anything other than the Gospel of Matthew.
The claim about Matthew probably came from Papias and probably isn’t referring to the book we call the Gospel according to Matthew. The claim about Mark likely has the same source (and may be true). The claims about Luke and John came from somewhere.PaulK writes: So you are prepared to put your scholarship up against a scholar with this background. That is a speculation. And a rather questionable one. The use of the third person in most places distinguishes between the author of the main text and the beloved disciples. In this place - by your reading - it affirms that those two are the same person but conceals the fact that the writer of that piece is the author of the main text. That is somew hat bizarre, compared to taking it at face value. That is bad apologetics not scholarship.quote: He has told you, O man, what is good ; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8
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GDR Member Posts: 6202 From: Sidney, BC, Canada Joined: Member Rating: 2.1 |
Hyroglyphx writes: As PaulK points out there is a strong consensus that Mark is the the oldest. Matthew is likely either the second or possibly the third one written. The Book of Matthew is likely the oldest gospel, possibly dating to around 1-100 years of Jesus’ death and supposed resurrection.Hyroglyphx writes: Here is a quote from Papias who was a contemporary of the disciples who didn't die young. Incidentally many did have long lives. Polycarp was executed by the Romans at age 86. But it is obscure as to whether this Mattisyahu (Matthew) is the same mentioned as the Jewish tax collector who taxed his own people on behalf of Caesar. If so, he speaks of himself in the 3rd person.quote:Matthew was a common name so you are right that it isn't clear. However, it is likely that Papias and others who attributed it to Matthew would have, if it had not been the apostle have designated it as a different Matthew. That would be consistent with Papias designating John the Elder as having compiled the Gospel of John instead of just saying John which would denote the apostle. Also, the fact that Matthew in the Gospel is referred to in the third person is actually additional evidence that it was Matthew the tax collector and apostle. Josephus in the "War of the Jews" refers to himself in the 3rd person to indicate that he is an active participant in the accounts. The fact that Matthew uses the third person in self reference would in the same way be writing it as being personally involved.
Hyroglyphz writes: Agreed but I would note that Papias refers to John the Elder as someone who was an eyewitness.
John the Elder or John the Revelator is assumed for the Book of John.Hyroglphx writes: Only partly true. As is accepted Luke is also the author of Acts. However, as we can see in Acts 21 Luke met with the apostles in Jerusalem and so would have had their first hand testimony.
Luke is likely a second hand account from Paul of Tarsus.Hyroglyphx writes: Papias quotes John the Elder when he says that Mark was essentially a disciple of Peter. Mark, however, is a third hand and far removed source.quote: Hyroglyphx writes: I'd say that none of that is correct. Can you give me a source?
In fact, the gospels are so similar grammatically and contextually it would seem that all of them used the same source probably the Gospel of Matthew. Hyroglyphx writes: You are using a fundamentalist understanding of the Gospels. They were inspired as Churchill was inspired when he wrote on the history of world war II. They had a narrative that they wanted to record.
Why would God need four versions of essentially the exact same story if it was divinely inspired? Why the need for such redundancy? Same parables, same histrionic tensing, etc regurgitated four times. Hyroglyphx writes: I have found the opposite. In reading the Bible as a collection of 66 books written by human authors and forming a somewhat coherent account of the human understanding of God, maturing within the Jewish culture, with the Biblical account climaxing in Jesus, my confidence in my Christian faith has been nothing but strengthened. As I have found, the more you know about the Bible the less confidence you have in it. The most diehard believers are those that, to quote Paul, are still on milk they’re feel good Christians.He has told you, O man, what is good ; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8
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GDR Member Posts: 6202 From: Sidney, BC, Canada Joined: Member Rating: 2.1 |
PaulK writes: He wasn't an apostle. We have no idea of how important he was as a disciple but he did become a bishop in the early church.
So, not one of those usually counted as the disciples. Maybe a follower, but not an important one.PaulK writes: You are right. I kinda missed your point.
No you didn’t and it doesn’t. You gave two translations of the same text. They are far too close to be anything else. PaulK writes: What evidence do you have for that or is it just your opinion.
And in all likelihood it was written by someone else entirely. Despite the text’s claim to the contrary. PaulK writes: In numerous cases he talks about his being a travelling companion of Paul's. He then in the first verse indicates that the writer is the same person who refers to himself as a companion of Paul.
Which doesn’t help much, since for all you know the name was attached to the Gospel because of those references. PaulK writes: No, it is a matter of using it as source material.
Unfortunately for you it is a matter of copying. PaulK writes: From my research I would say that it is most likely that it was the apostle Matthew as I've written to Hyroglyphx above.
We know that it is highly unlikely that the author of Matthew was either an eye witness or Matthew the tax collector. PaulK writes: The "we" passages are consistent with the entirety of Luke and Acts.
There are also questions of whether the we passages of Acts reflect actual experience. Not that a brief meeting years before writing would be of much use anyway. PaulK writes: Essentially then you are saying that he is lying. In that case you can throw out the whole Gospel. He is giving a rationale for trusting in what he has written.
That’s what it says, whether it is true is another matter. Again the fact that the author never tells us which source his claims come from is a count against him. We only know that Mark is a source because the copying can be detected by literary analysis. Papias writes: You may be right. Irenaeus was a disciple of Polycarp. Irenaeus wrote that Polycarp interacted with several eye witnesses. Polycarp and Papias were friends and so it seems likely that if Polycarp met several disciples then Papias did as well. There is no evidence beyond that however.
So where does Papias claim to have met disciples other than Aristion and John (if John the Elder really is the Disciple)? If you are going to claim that comes directly from Papias you have to back it up. I think that the omission of any others is a strong indication that he didn’t meet them. PaulK writes: It is generally accepted that Matthew was first written in a Hebrew language and translated into Greek very early. Sure there is - the Gospel of Matthew is not an eye-witness account and it was written in Greek. As I said earlier I think that there is good evidence that it was written by an apostle.
PaulK writes: I already presented some where we can see Josephus writing in the "War of the Jews" referring to himself in the 3rd person to indicate that he is an an active part of the narrative and not simply giving a second hand account. Then let us see some actual scholarship saying why that text should not be taken at face value. If all I can see is an opinion that doesn’t make much sense to me I am not about to prefer it to an obvious and simple alternative.He has told you, O man, what is good ; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8
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GDR Member Posts: 6202 From: Sidney, BC, Canada Joined: Member Rating: 2.1 |
PaulK writes: Yes and no. I had accepted Christianity primarily because of reading CS Lewis, but in actually studying further the works of Lewis and then N T Wright, John Polkinghorne and more recently Richard Bauckham, it fleshed out my understanding and actually strengthened my faith in the basic Christian message. And the above shows how that happened. And it wasn’t because of the evidence.He has told you, O man, what is good ; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8
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GDR Member Posts: 6202 From: Sidney, BC, Canada Joined: Member Rating: 2.1 |
PaulK writes: This happens too much around here. When someone doesn't bow down to your superior atheistic wisdom you go into ridicule mode as a convincing argument. Cheers Your willingness to write ridiculous falsehoods - as well as your rejection of evidence contrary to your views - is proof that your belief is not at all based on the evidence. And Lewis’ awful apologetics shouldn’t convince any rational person. (Yes, I did read Mere Christianity and yes it is really, really bad)He has told you, O man, what is good ; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8
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GDR Member Posts: 6202 From: Sidney, BC, Canada Joined: Member Rating: 2.1 |
PaulK writes: I claimed that two were written by people directly connected to disciples of Jesus during His life time, and that two were actually disciples of Jesus with Matthew being less certain.
Let us note that you admit that two of the Gospels were not written by eye-witnesses and those are - contrary to your claim - those we’re the traditional candidate is least unlikely to be the author.GDR writes: Also, the fact that Matthew in the Gospel is referred to in the third person is actually additional evidence that it was Matthew the tax collector and apostle.PaulK writes: This is the same sort of error that fundamentalists make in trying to understand ancient writings in the same way that we understand something written today. Do you want to actually try to defend this, this time? Don’t you realise that it is evidence that the author was not Matthew?Here is a quote from the end of the Gospel of John. quote:It is clear that John is a participant in this event however, in the last line he writes that we can know that his testimony is true. This of course raised the question of why John would write that his testimony is true. Actually this conundrum is confirming the authorship as being John, the beloved disciple. It was normal in antiquity to refer to yourself in the third person to indicate that you were an actual participant in the narrative. We can see this in the earlier works of Polybius, and in Julius Caesar’s the Gallic War. Josephus a contemporary of John often referred to himself in the third person to denote that he was an objective observer or participant in his account titled The War of the Jews. By referring to himself in the third person John is actually claiming that he was an objective observer of the event. It is less clear in Matthew if that is the case or not. Irenaeus wrote this:quote:We can’t be sure that the Matthew that Irenaeus is Matthew the tax collector or some other Matthew. However, Matthew the tax collector is the only Matthew that we have a record of in the Gospels or in the other early church authors. If there was another Matthew responsible for the Gospel he would in all likelihood have been mentioned somewhere. It isn’t conclusive but it is highly likely that the Gospel of Matthew was written by Matthew the tax collector. It is clear from the work of the early Christians that the authenticity of Gospel material was of the utmost importance. Clearly they would use material that could be relied upon to give an accurate representation of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. I see it as clear that they would use the writing of those that had trustworthy sources of information and that would require either first hand eyewitness knowledge as we see in John and most likely Matthew, or the work of those who compiled their work with direct access to those who were eyewitnesses. That is made clear in the writings of the early Christians such as Papias, Polycard, Irenaeus and Eusebius. We know that Matthew is mentioned more often in the Gospel of Matthew than in any of the other Gospels, in spite of the fact that Matthew uses the Gospel of Mark as a major source of what he records. Also as Matthew was the most used Gospel of the early Christians it is unlikely that they would prioritize that Gospel if it wasn’t compiled by an eyewitness, namely Matthew the tax collector as they contended.He has told you, O man, what is good ; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8
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GDR Member Posts: 6202 From: Sidney, BC, Canada Joined: Member Rating: 2.1 |
Paul writes: I agreed he was a disciple of Paul. However we read this in Acts. I disagree. The Luke you think wrote the Gospel was a follower of Paul who was never a disciple of Jesus. I don’t think that having met a few of the disciples years before writing really counts as a connection.quote:So as a disciple of Paul he also spent time with the disciples in Jerusalem Paulk writes: Why would you say that when I gave you several examples where that is not the case. It is a literary technique that is still used occasionally but more often by the ancient writers. It is calledilleism When the writers wanted to indicate that they were personally involved they would often write themselves into the account in the third person. Josephus in the War of the Jews uses this illeism extensively.
Unfortunately for you third person is used in pretty much the same was in ancient and in modern writings.PaulK writes: The authors were known by their original audience. It is often used for emphasizing personal involvement.
Even if you are correct, how do you do distinguish that use of third person from the more common use - to refer to people other than the author or the reader? Surely you must already know that the person spoken of is the author - and therefore use of third person cannot be evidence that the person referred to is the author.PaulK writes: The early church followers clearly say the Matthew was originally written in Aramaic and the very early on translated, probably by Matthew, into Greek. There are no remaining copies of the Aramaic text.
No, because the document we call the Gospel According to Matthew was almost certainly written in Greek, and therefore Irenaus is either misinformed or speaking of another - lost - document.PaulK writes: John’s Gospel is written to give a biographical/historical account of his experience. Luke does claim that he is the author of his Gospel. We have to determine the authorship of the 2 remaining Gospels by what others have written.
No, it really isn’t. It is clear they wanted to claim that but it isn’t at all clear that they really did much to ensure it. John’s Gospel is expressly written to promote belief, none of the Gospels clearly identify their authors or the sources for any of their claims.PaulK writes: As I say we have less evidence for Matthew than the other Gospels but no disciple was with Jesus all of the time so it would be normal to take the first Gospel written in order to provide information on individual events that he wasn’t present for.
The author may have had a particular interest in Matthew, or asource which spoke more of Matthew, but his use of Mark makes it very unlikely that he was an eye-witness. Now maybe he had a translation of the Hebrew Gospel supposedly written by Matthew but we can’t know that. It would, however, explain the evidence better than the idea that he was Matthew.PaulK writes: In that case you are attributing a motive of falsifying the information that they had. All of the early church fathers such as Papias and Irenaeus are very clear that the credentials of the authors were of utmost importance. Also much of this was happening within the lifetime of those who lived to a ripe old age and had been young followers of Jesus. We know that Polycarp was executed by the Romans at age 86 for an example of someone who live a long life although born after the resurrection of Jesus. Or the attribution to Matthew was intended to justify the use of it, and preferring it over Mark. Certainly the attribution is questionable and there doesn’t seem to have been much evidence even back then.He has told you, O man, what is good ; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8
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