Were The Four Gospels Written Anonymously?
Well you can review the evidence yourself
He started out with a conspiracy theory:
" you will notice that they often say the four Gospels were written anonymously. The idea behind this assertion is an effort to discredit the Gospels and call into question, their credibility, concerning the testimony written about Jesus in the four Gospels."
Total loon. It's because they are literally anonymous.
"In John’s Gospel he tells us why he and the other three writers of the Synoptic Gospels, did not place their names at the top of these documents.
“Those who speak for themselves want glory only for themselves, but a person who seeks to honor the one who sent him speaks truth, not lies.” ~John 7:18"
Uh, no? Jesus was talking about his message from God and words he just said. This isn't about other Gospels at all?
"It was Jesus’ example of humility and lack of effort to exalt Himself, that set the pattern for how the Gospel writers would record their testimony about Jesus. "
John was the last Gospel he wasn't setting any pattern? The Gospels are pretending to write words from someone else not recording testimony? The Epistles had no problem putting names to the source?
What does a Christian scholar say?
“the [New Testament] Gospels are actually anonymous writings….the titles we are accustomed to seeing were likely added later by scribes.” "
The age-old tradition that the canonical Gospels were authored by Mark the companion of Peter, Luke the physician to Paul, Matthew the tax collector, and John the Disciple comes down to us from the second century CE Patristic era of the Catholic Church.
[2] Yet, even the Catholic Church now recognizes that those traditional titles are
pseudonymous. According to the
Catholic Encyclopedia, “the first four historical books of the New Testament are supplied with titles (
Euangelion kata Matthaion, Euangelion kata Markon, etc.), which, however ancient, do not go back to the respective authors of those sacred writings. […] It thus appears that the present titles of the Gospels are not traceable to the evangelists themselves.”
"To start, there is the observation that not a single Gospel writer names himself within the text as composer of any New Testament gospel. This means that the Gospels are
internally anonymous."
Another indication that the Gospels were written anonymously is that the earliest external attestations to the Gospels refer to them
without the traditional names attached. The Didache (an early Christian treatise), Justin Martyr (c. 155 CE), and possibly even Polycarp (c. 120 – 140 CE) and Ignatius (c. 115 CE) account for our earliest sources exhibiting awareness of writings that appear to correspond with the New Testament Gospels. However, each of the above-named sources treat the gospels anonymously.
The Didache (pronounced
did·eh·kay) is another example of an early Christian source from this period that treats the gospels anonymously. This treatise shares phrases and content found particularly in the Gospel of Matthew. In fact, chapter 8 of the Didache quotes the Lord’s Prayer as written in Matthew
6:9-13, and indeed attributes the quote to a written source, but
not to ‘Matthew.’ Instead, the Didache refers to its written source as “his [the Lord’s] Gospel” – without providing attribution to the disciple ‘Matthew’ (see full quote footnoted here
[11]). Elsewhere, the Didache refers to its written source as “the Gospel of the Lord” and as the “ordinances of the Gospel.”
[12] Again, anonymous attributions.
Prior to Irenaeus in 180 CE providing the very first attestation to a Gospel attributed to ‘Luke’, a fellow named Marcion of Sinope (c. 140 CE) possessed a slightly shorter and simpler form of this same Gospel, which was not identified with Luke or any specific author. Rather, this gospel text was circulated with the title “Euaggelion Kuriou” (‘The Gospel of the Lord’).
[14] To reiterate, this Gospel was in circulation approximately 40 years before any source ascribed the name “Luke” as its author.
Furthermore, the Greek preposition κατα (“according to”) is not
per se understood as a claim to a specific individual’s authorship, as the phrase “according to” in this context is best taken to mean “handed down from” a tradition or community associated with the attached name. For example, there is the Gospel according to the Nazarenes, the Gospel according to the Ebionites, the Gospel according to the Egyptians, the Gospel according to the Hebrews, and many others. So, from these examples we can see that the phrase “according to” is not referenced to named individuals, but is a designation for sectarian groups.
[17]
Finally, the Fourth Gospel (aka, Gospel of John) provides us with a glaring clue that this text was originally penned anonymously – namely, that the narrative goes out of its way to avoid explicitly identifying the author by name. Whoever wrote this Gospel employed a rhetorical technique to shroud the source’s identity behind the moniker “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” The purpose of this literary device was to prompt the reader to utilize textual and narrative signals
within the story to discern the identity of this person. But why even bother with this coy rhetorical technique if “John” simply slapped his name onto the title of the Gospel? This would completely defeat his literary purpose.
