Who are these Gospel Writers?

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, are the first four books of the New Testament that relate Jesus’ life as He lived it on Earth.  They are referred to as gospels and are not ancient fables written hundreds of years after the events they described.  None of them begin “once upon a time” since all of them were written by people who actually talked with Jesus, or knew someone who directly talked with Jesus.  Each gospel writer had a different personality, background and purpose for writing that impacted the focus and view points of their retellings.  The exact dating as to when each book was written is debatable, but they were  all probably written within 50 years of each other, after Christ's death and resurrection but while eyewitnesses to Jesus were still alive.

Matthew:   Evidence suggests that an unknown Jewish Christian, probably a scribe, composed this Gospel between the years 55-65 AD, based on Matthew’s direct encounters with Jesus. Matthew was an apostle of Jesus, a former tax collector who would be required to know Greek and also be well organized.  Tax collectors wrote in shorthand so Matthew was able to record words as they were spoken.  Jesus' Sermon on the Mount that Matthew captures in Chapters 5-7 is likely a word for word account of that message.  55-65  AD means 55-65 anno domino, or 55-65 years after the birth of Christ, so Matthew was written 20-30 years after Christ was crucified.  As a Jew (also fluent in Hebrew), Matthew was very familiar with the Old Testament prophecies of a promised Messiah that would come through the line of David.  Matthew provides Jesus's genealogy showing that He did indeed descend from David and points out in Matthew 9:27 and 21:9 that Jesus was referred to as "the Son of David". 

Mark:  Mark was also probably a scribe and a companion of Peter, another of the 12 apostles.   Mark grew up in Jerusalem, and was an eyewitness of many of the events in the life of Jesus. After Jesus was crucified, Mark, also known as John Mark, traveled with his cousin Barnabas and Paul. Mark appears to be the earliest of the Gospels, written only 55-59 AD.  Although a Jew, Mark wrote for a gentile audience, not focusing on genealogies nor frequently referencing the Old Testament.  This may have been due to Peter's influence, having seen gentiles receive the Holy Spirit after his vision from God and visit with Cornelius. (Acts 10:1-48).  Mark was probably also influenced by this mother who was a prominent Christian Jew.  Mark highlighted that Christ did not come to be served by others, but to serve everyone, Jew and gentile. Mark 10:45  "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served,  but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."   

Luke:  Luke was the beloved physician of Paul, and also the probable author of The Acts of the Apostles.   Luke wrote more of the New Testament than any other human writer did (assuming that Paul did not author the letter to the Hebrews). He was the only gentile to have his writings included in scripture.  Since it seems that Paul was still alive at the end of Acts, dating it in the early 60’s, Luke may have been written around 58-65 AD.  And he makes it very clear in Luke 1:3 that he was taking great care to investigate and record the truth.  His gospel was composed with a gentile audience in mind, and his intent was to show that a Christian’s faith is based upon historically reliable and verifiable events.  Luke also recorded Jesus' genealogy back to Adam which was historically reliable and verifiable.

Although no competing theories as to who wrote Matthew, Mark, and Luke have been discovered, technically all four Gospels are anonymous.  All kinds of skeptics will tell you that we don’t know with 100% certainty who wrote the first three gospels and they are right. However, there is no apparent motivation for the people of the newly formed church to lie about who wrote these stories.  Matthew had been a hated tax collector, and Mark and Luke were not apostles themselves. 

Those living when the Gospels were written had no motive to assign authorship to the less famous Matthew, Mark, and Luke.  They were assigned authorship since they were believed to be  "at the scene" or reporting on someone who was at the scene. The much later apocryphal gospels (not included in the bible) chose more well-known names to be their fictitious authors - Judas, Philip, Peter, Mary and James.  How do we know they were made up authorships? These later books were written after the year 200 AD, and Judas, Philip, Peter, Mary and James were all long gone at that point.  

John:  Since this Gospel speaks of “a disciple who Jesus loved” that is connected with its writing, the author is probably Jesus’ beloved apostle John.  John often refers to himself as Jesus’ favorite and was most likely the youngest disciple.  Most scholars consider John the latest of the Gospels written between the years 85-90 AD, after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD.  John also wrote a few letters that are included in the New Testament: 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John.  And he wrote the last book of the New Testament, Revelations, a dream which came to him detailing how Jesus would come again for final victory.  The other three gospels narrate the actions and teachings of Jesus.  John's focus was on highlighting Jesus' deity, "the Son of God" who was sent by "God the Father", fully God and fully human.  John does not start with Jesus' birth, but Jesus as "the Word" before creation who was involved with the Father and the Spirit in the creation story.

Skeptics point out that often the gospel stories do not completely match up and may even appear to contradict each other.  But lets agree that if all gospel accounts were perfectly identical, skeptics would claim that the writers colluded so that their stories would match, much like when witnesses to a crime are suspected of "getting their story straight" when they report what they saw using the exact same words. 

On the other hand, if there are discrepancies, skeptics may claim that the writers cannot be trusted.  Believable eyewitnesses to a  robbery give independent accounts, agreeing on the key information (who had the gun), but offering different perspectives based on what they could see from their angle and varying life experiences/perspectives which may influence what facts they consider important and how much detail to provide. Scholars who study all the differences in the gospels are convinced that we have a factual and reliable record of Jesus' life and ministry.  

Police interview all the witnesses at a crime scene since more details can be gained by comparing and contrasting the different eye witness accounts. Our Christmas nativities depict the birth of Jesus where both the shepherds and the magi show up to worship the new born baby.  Matthew mentions only the magi (Matthew 2:1-2) not the shepherds, and Luke mentions only the shepherds (Luke 2:8-20) not the magi.  However, neither Matthew nor Luke claim to be capturing every detail of Jesus' birth (although physician Luke did promise to provide us lots of nitty gritty).  They are different men writing to different people, so it is not surprising that different details would be included in their narratives.  And remember Mark and John did not go into "birth of Jesus" detail at all!  We can be sure that both the shepherds and the magi came to worship Jesus, although the magi many months later which is maybe why Luke left it out.

Sometimes witnesses provide significant additional information.  Matthew 14: 22:33, Mark 6:48-51, and John 6:16-21 all record that Jesus walked on water.   But only Matthew reports that Peter got out of the boat in a failed attempt to join Jesus.   Matthew 28-33 , (Peter speaking) "Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water."  And He said, "Come!"  And Peter said got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus.  But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me!".  Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?"  When they got into the boat, the wind stopped.  And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying "You are certainly God's Son!" No mention of Peter's attempt to walk on water in Mark, maybe because Mark was Peter's scribe and he didn't think his lack of faith was a flattering picture to highlight!  Perhaps John, who was actually in the boat, was so overwhelmed by what Jesus was doing that he paid little attention to Peter's flailing in the water.  Although a man of detail, Luke opted to not include the "walking on water" story at all, perhaps because neither he nor his great influencer Paul were there.  Different accounts add additional information.  All the books of the Bible are God inspired and true, so if Matthew says Peter got out of the boat, Peter got out of the boat.  The other gospels do not dispute this, they just don't cover it.