Who wrote eye witness accounts of Jesus' life?

Answer 1

Some say Jesus' disciples Matthew and John wrote accounts of the time they spent with Jesus on his journeys and the teachings they heard and miracles they saw. Mark was an eyewitness and also received accounts from Peter. Luke collated eyewitness accounts of those who had known Christ - notably his mother Mary.

Answer 2

Scholars say that the New Testament gospels were not written by eyewitnesses to the life of Jesus. They say that the gospels now known as Matthew's Gospel and Luke's Gospel were largely based on Mark's Gospel and a hypothetical sayings document called the 'Q' document. John's Gospel, in turn, is believed to have been derived from Luke's Gospel, and to a certain extent direct from Mark's Gospel.

The 'Q' document, that provided such an important source for the authors of Matthew and Luke, was a sayings document only, so the authors each placed the sayings they took from 'Q' in their own, somewhat different, contexts. 'Q' does not provide us with an eyewitness source.

If there was an eyewitness close to any of the gospels, that eyewitness would have been a source used by the author of Mark. However, Raymond E. Brown ( An Introduction to the New Testament) tells us that Mark's Gospel seems to depend on traditions (and perhaps already shaped sources) received in Greek. The earliest gospel author, on whom the other gospel authors were dependent, was not an eyewitness, nor does he appear to have known an eyewitness.
We simply do not know where Mark really got his information about the life of Jesus, nor how close those sources were to actual eyewitnesses of the events.

Answer 3

We have no eyewitness account of the life of Jesus. All the New Testament gospels were originally anonymous, until the Church Fathers attributed them to the persons they thought probably wrote the gospels. However, scholars say there is no good reason to accept any of these attributions, in particular the attributions to Matthew and John because none of the gospels could have been written by an eyewitness.

The first New Testament gospel to be written was Mark, which no one suggests to have been written by an eyewitness. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke have long been known to have been substantially based on Mark and the hypothetical 'Q' document, which rules these out as eyewitness accounts. Someone who was with Jesus throughout his ministry would scarcely have needed to rely on an account written by someone who was not an eyewitness. It is now also accepted by many scholars that John was based on the synoptic gospels, but debate continues as to whether the author relied on Mark alone, Luke alone, both Mark and Luke, or even had at least some knowledge of Matthew.

Answer 4

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John