Saturday, May 2, 2009

Who wrote the four gospels of Mathew, Mark, Luke and John?

The question has always been asked who wrote the four gospels of Mathew, Mark, Luke and John of the books of the new testament bible?. Were they written by the apostles Mathew, Mark, Luke and John, or were they written by someone else who has never met Jesus or any of his disciples? We live in an age where science, mathematics and logic are the cornerstones of our era, and if something cannot be supported by evidence of an eyewitness account the whole case is dismissed.

Even though it may be argued that Mathew, Mark, Luke and John were not literate enough to write the gospels, the literary experts who were the scribes were certainly capable of writing those stories. There are two main types of scribes, just as there are many preachers but two main types. There were scribes that worked for the Pharisees and the general public that write letters of correspondences for others for a living , and there are those scribes that work for God, the prophets, or the gods even though with their literary skills they can write for others as well. The scribes that are chosen to work for God are very few in number for their work are assigned to a prophet or a few prophets. The scribes of God or of a prophet will usually have a close relationship with a prophet either as a blood relative or will have a relationship that is extremely close to a prophet. An example of such a recent combination is that of John Dee and Edward Kelley who together produced what is known as the Enochian manuscripts of the angels. John Dee was the scribe and Edward Kelley was the prophet. Edward Kelley looked into a crystal ball and describes the visions of the angels while John Dee writes. The true scribe of God is the hand of God holding a pen, whereas the prophet is the eyes and mouth of God.

The book of Luke gives a better account of the beginning years of Jesus and John the Baptist. Luke Chapter 1: 1-3 states that 1. Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth, in order in declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, 2. Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eye witnesses, and ministers of the word; 3. It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus. 4. That thou might know the certainty of those things, wherein thou has been instructed.
From these four verses it is clear that someone is narrating a story to a person by the name Theophilus, whether that person was Luke, or any other person Theophilus was the recipient of the story. The name Theophilus is a Geek name, and obviously he was literate. It is then most likely that Theophilus was a Greek writer that wrote the story of the gospel of Luke.

In Luke chapter 3, verses 23-38 the descendants of Jesus, and Joseph are named as Joseph the father of Jesus and Joseph was the son of Heli. The book of Mathew has no introduction but begins by naming the descendants of Jesus as Joseph the father of Jesus and Jacob the father of Joseph. This father according to Luke is Heli, whereas the gospel of Mathew states that the father of Joseph is Jacob. These conflict one another, so it can be deduced right away that the writer of the book of Luke is not the same writer as that of the book of Mathew.

The book of Mark begins from the section of Jesus recruiting his disciples starting for Simon and Andrew who were fishermen. In the book of Mark when Mary Magdalene and Mary entered the tomb they saw the angel sitting inside the tomb who told them that Jesus is risen. The book of Luke concludes that there were two angels by the tomb with the stone of the sepulchre already rolled over. The book of Mathew concludes that when Mary Magdalene and Mary went to the tomb an angel of the Lord came down and rolled over the stone away from the sepulchre and sat on the stone and informed them that Jesus has risen. The book of John concludes that when Mary Magdalene went to the sepulchre the stone was already rolled off, so she run to call the disciples who on arrival entered the tomb and found that it was empty. The conclusions of the four gospels conflict one another so most likely one of them is accurate and the remaining three made up their version from the one. The detailed accounts of the contents of the work of Jesus were similar in all four gospels excerpt others had more information in one book than the other.

By comparing the four gospels, Luke has a more elaborate account of the birth of John the Baptist and Jesus, his conception, and the relationship between Mary and her cousin Elisabeth the mother of John the Baptist. The book of Luke had an introduction of the source of the story, the others told the story from somewhere in the middle. The book of Luke points to a person by the name Theophilus a Greek man, and like all stories and news once one person tells a story others copy it and create their own versions of it. It can be deduced that the four gospels have a single source from Theophilus and the other writers filled in the story with their own version.

The Greeks from the ancient times have been known for their skills as writers of Philosophy who created fictional stories of gods and their adventures such as Hercules, Zeus, Apollo, Eros, Aphrodite and many others. There were many philosophers that later even challenged the existence of their gods, and Socrates was known to have drunk the poison wine rather than accept the existence of these gods. Among the Greek philosophers, sculptures and mathematicians were Aristotle., Plato, Pythagoras, Archimedis, Michael Angelo, Leonardo Da Vinci and many others. The Greeks focused their work, art and writings around the mystery of God and assigned many superhuman powers to fictional characters and made gods out of them. Their scribes made a living in writing spiritual stories for those stories were more fascinating to the public, and it is not surprising that the four gospels were written by Greek authors.

This approach contrasts the belief system of the Africans, for the Africans are die hard believers. An African prophet, medicine man, or spiritual leader must be able to physically demonstrate the powers of their god or spirit otherwise no one buys into their work. An example is the immovable sword of Okomfo Anokye of Ghana; whose sword remains in the ground for hundreds of years and no one is able to pull it out. Today, among some of the western societies, religions are spreading through the writings of science fiction stories with names of characters made up by the imagination of the writer. Religion and spirituality hold the balance of faith, belief and lives of people in their hand and until a person has sound proof of the existence and powers of a god or spirit it is better not to follow that religion or pray to that god or spirit.

Ken Nunoo