What processes did the four gospel writers adopt in writing their versions of the gospel?

Answer 1

A:To understand the process by which the New Testament gospels were written, we need first to know by whom they were written and when. The four gospels were originally all anonymous and were only attributed to the apostles whose names they now bear later in the second century. Modern scholars say these attributions are unlikely and that the gospels could not have been written by eyewitnesses to the events they portray. So we do not know who actually wrote the gospels, but we will find they were not contemporaries of Jesus or the apostles. The first gospel to be written was Mark, around 70 CE, followed by Matthew in the eighties of the first century, Luke in the late nineties or early in the second century, then John fairly early in the second century.

Biblical scholars have demonstrated that Matthew and Luke were based on Mark's Gospel with, for example, Matthew having some 600 of the 666 verses in Mark, often using the same words in the original Greek language. We know that Luke was copied from Mark in codex or loose leaf form because of the 'Missing Block', a sequence of approximately thirteen pages of missing text. Matthew and Luke are also believed to have sourced additional sayings attributed to Jesus from the hypothetical 'Q' document. Finally, Matthewand Luke both contain some material unique to each gospel, and for which the original source is unknown. Examples include the two nativity stories, the genealogies of Jesus and the resurrection appearances of the risen Jesus, with the accounts in Lukeclearly contradicting those in Matthew.

John's Gospel is loosely based on Luke's Gospel, with some material taken direct from Mark. It seems that some of the material unique to John addresses concerns that the author had in the second century period.

We do not really know the process by which the first gospel, Mark, was written. Clearly its author could not have been an eyewitness to Jesus, because of the errors, including geographical errors, in the gospel. Raymond E. Brown (An Introduction to the New Testament) says that Mark seems to depend on traditions (and perhaps already shaped sources) received in Greek, however we do not know the origins or form of these traditions. There appear to be some parallels with the epistles of Paul, so these could have inspired some of Mark's content. They include sayings that Paul attributed to himself but which Mark re-attributed to Jesus. Dennis R. MacDonald (The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark) also sees close parallels between the Gospel and Homers epics, which he believes Mark's author used as sources for many gospel passages. Mark's Gospel contains two sophisticated chiastic structures, proving its author to be a brilliant writer but also evidencing that the gospel could not have been a historically accurate account.