14 Second, notice that there is some variation in the form of the titles (for example, some of the later manuscripts omit the word “Gospel”). When it comes to the titles of the Gospels, not only the earliest and best manuscripts, but all of the ancient manuscripts-without exception, in every language-attribute the four Gospels to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Not what you wish they said, but what they actually say.
The reason this is so significant is that one of the most basic rules in the study of New Testament manuscripts (a practice known as textual criticism) is that you go back to the earliest and best Greek copies to see what they actually say. First, there is a striking absence of any anonymous Gospel manuscripts. Instead, as New Testament scholar Simon Gathercole has demonstrated, the ancient manuscripts are unanimous in attributing these books to the apostles and their companions….Notice three things about this evidence. “The first and perhaps biggest problem for the theory of the anonymous Gospels is this: no anonymous copies of Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John have ever been found. For example, the superscript on the Gospel of Matthew reads, “The Gospel According To Matthew.” The superscript on the Gospels is as old as the Greek manuscripts themselves! The superscript on the Gospels has reference to the “titles” placed above the Gospels in the Greek manuscripts. What evidence is there that the New Testament Gospels are genuine? As such, many claim that they were written by forgers decades or centuries after the time of Christ.
Many believe that the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) are actually anonymous. “It’s important to acknowledge that strictly speaking, the gospels are anonymous.”įor a document to be “genuine,” it means that it was written by the author to whom it is attributed. Craig Blomberg) Grand Rapids, Michigan Zondervan) (Unless otherwise noted, all italicized quotations are from Lee Strobel, The Case For Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation Of The Evidence For Jesus, 20-46 (Kindle Edition, Interview With Dr.
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