Evidence From the Early Church Fathers On The Origins of the Gospels

Index:

1. Matthew’s Gospel and The Early Fathers
2. Mark’s Gospel and The Early Fathers
3. Luke’s Gospel and The Early Fathers
4. John’s Gospel and The Early Fathers

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The earliest Christian writing outside of the New Testament are completely unambiguous and totally unanimous about who wrote the four Gospels.

Some of the early church fathers either knew the apostles themselves, or who were only one generation removed from the apostles.

External Evidence From the Early Church Fathers

Ancient Witness	Location	Significance	Time of Writing
Papias	Asia Minor (Hierapolis)	Disciple of apostle John	around AD 130
Justin Martyr	Palestine (Nablus)	Former philosopher turned Christian apologist	around AD 140-165
Irenaeus	France (Lyons)	Disciple of Polycarp, disciple of apostle John	around AD 180
Muratorian Canon	Italy (Rome)	Fragment of authoritative list of Scriptures	around AD 180
Clement	Egypt (Alexandria)	Disciple of elders who knew the apostles	around AD 200
Tertullian	North Africa (Carthage)	Latin Christian apologist	around AD 200-225

To use a modern analogy: Papias, for example, was as closely related to the apostles as the children of Holocaust survivors living in the twenty-first century are to those who personally experienced World War II.

This destroys the claim that the stories of Jesus that we read now are so separated from what actually occurred by word of mouth. Similar to the telephone game.