and How Do We Know for Sure?
Note: The below information comes from (Zondervan Academic)
The Bible gives us four accounts of Christ’s life. Each records a unique perspective of the most significant event in history—the crucifixion and resurrection. All four gospels are named after men who lived during or shortly after Christ’s early ministry. Tradition considers these men the authors, but there’s one problem: not one of these books names its author.
The gospels are anonymous—so how do we know who wrote them?
None of the gospels came with an “about the author” section. The closest we get to a claim of authorship is at the very end of the Book of John, where the author implies that the book was written by “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 21:24 NIV).
Are there other context clues we can use to determine the authors? Can we trust tradition’s assumptions about who wrote the gospels? Did the early church fathers know more about the gospels’ authorship than we know now?
These questions are addressed in Dr. Mark Strauss’ course, “Four Portraits, One Jesus,” which this article comes from. Let’s start answering these questions by looking at the first canonical gospel, Matthew.
“More to come … still being developed”