Caller asks: Who wrote the Gospels? Tim Staples, staff apologist, gives the Catholic Answer.
Transcript:
All right, Tim, I was wondering, I’ve heard it said that Mark’s Gospel was written first and that it’s based on the preaching of St. Peter. What I want to know is, are the other three Gospels also based on the preaching of another apostle that’s not Peter or no? Right. Your question is a good one. Are all of the Gospels based on input of the apostles, right? Yes, and in order for an inspired author to be an inspired author, one of the criteria was he had to be in contact with one of the apostles.
And in the case of Matthew, of course, Matthew is an apostle, so he is the apostolic source for Matthew’s Gospel. Mark, as you mentioned, it’s not only the preaching of Peter, I would argue, Ryan, but the fact that Mark is said to be in, for example, 1 Peter chapter 5, right around, where would that be, about verse, I want to say, 14 and 15. It’s right in there of 1 Peter. Mark is referred to as the beloved son of Peter. So he was a companion of St. Peter. So it was certainly based on Peter’s preaching, but more than that, you have a sort of very close friendship. Mark was kind of Peter’s secretary, so to speak. And so he had intimate knowledge, a very close relationship with St. Peter. So yes, Peter, and it’s really, I will tell you this, Ryan, when you understand sort of the tradition behind the Gospels, it really helps in your study of the Gospels.
We know Matthew was, of course, written by Matthew, but it was also written in the context of writing to a Jewish Christian community. And you see that in Matthew’s writings, Noah. It’s awesome. For example, we know the biggest issue among the Jewish Christian community in the first century was over authority. I mean, they had a problem with what was called the Judaizers, who threatened to tear the fledgling church apart, claiming that for the Gentiles in particular, but for Jews as well. In order to be a Christian, you first got to be a Jew, and you got to keep the Jewish law and go to the temple and especially be circumcised and so forth. And when you see that, Matthew, you understand why. You know, it was Peter who came in and put the hammer down on that false teaching at the First Church Council in Acts chapter 15. And so that’s why in Matthew’s Gospel you have such an emphasis, more so by far than any other–the apostles on Petrine authority. You uniquely have, in Matthew chapter 10 verse 2, Peter is called the first apostle. He comes right out and says it, protos, which means they’re chief. He’s the chief apostle. It’s not first chronologically because we know in John 1.41 Andrew was the first chronologically. I hope you’re following me here. So Peter is declared there to be the first. That is the chief apostle. You have only in Matthew’s Gospel do you have, you know, Peter walking on the water in Matthew 14. Only in Matthew 16 do we have the keys of the kingdom. Only in Matthew 17 do you have Peter throwing in the hook, catching the fish, that miraculous he has money to pay the tax in the place of Jesus. Right there you have vicar of Christ right there. And on and on we can go in Matthew’s Gospel. Mark’s Gospel, you have none of that. As you pointed out, Ryan, because Mark gets the substance of his Gospel from Peter, and Peter we know was an extremely humble man. So you don’t have any of the Petrine text there. What you do have is Peter emphasizing all of the apostles. We would say the college of the apostles and their authority. And you see that in a special way in Mark chapter 6 when we have the feeding of the 5,000 and then afterward when, you know, Jesus comes walking on the water. You notice in Matthew 14 it’s Peter who steps out and miraculously walks on the water. Again, Matthew emphasizing Petrine authority.
And then when he starts to go under Jesus in effect says, “Nope, you’re not going under. Get back up on top of those waves.” And he supernaturally walks back to the boat with Jesus. I mean, right? But in Mark’s Gospel, look at Mark 6 47 through 52, and it’s incredible. What you see is all the apostles call out to Jesus. He stops, turns, steps into the boat, and the storm ceases. And he’s emphasizing all of the apostles rather than the emphasis on Peter. Now they don’t contradict to each other. It’s just different aspects of the same story that are being brought out for the particular community to whom the apostles are writing. And that’s why it’s important, Ryan, that we do understand that Peter is the source behind Mark’s Gospel. It is really, really helpful. Now St. Luke got much of his Gospel from St. Paul. And you say, “Well, wow, St. Paul, but he wasn’t there.” Well, yeah, but St. Paul received direct revelation from Jesus Christ.
And so, yeah, you have St. Luke who, to some substantial, in some substantial way, got a lot of his stuff from St. Paul. Now of course we also know St. Luke interviewed eyewitnesses. He tells us in Luke chapter 1, so he no doubt conversed with the other apostles. And with the Blessed Virgin Mary we know from the intimate details he had of Mary’s life and Christ’s life as an infant. But then John’s Gospel, of course, you have John the apostle, and we don’t have time. We could spend the whole hour talking about the importance of St. Luke being a Gentile and the influence there in St. John and his encounters with Serenthas and the early Gnostics who denied the divinity of Christ, denied the real presence of our Lord and the Eucharist. And that’s why you have in John’s Gospel the emphases on the divinity of Christ, the real presence of our Lord and the Eucharist in John 6, and a lot more because the Gnostics also denied the incarnation. We have the unique occurrence in John 1.14 and the Word was made flesh, not mentioned in any of the other Gospels. So yeah, Ryan, all four of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, have at their sources either the fact that they are apostles in Matthew and John, or they are closely connected to and had a close relationship with the apostles in Mark, who was Peter’s secretary in St. Luke, who we know from the book of Acts traveled with St. Paul.