Who Wrote the Christmas Story?

Confirming the Authorship of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke

The story of the first Christmas comes from two books in the New Testament, namely the Gospel accounts attributed to Matthew and Luke. Who wrote those Gospels? Can we trust the story we hear each Christmas does, in fact, come from these two men, who lived in 1st century Jewish Palestine and who (especially in Matthew’s case) followed Jesus? 

THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

Who wrote the Gospel that first appears in the New Testament canon, the Gospel of Matthew? Doubts about Matthew’s authorship stem largely from the fact that modern New Testament scholars largely date it after Mark. Would Matthew, so the thinking goes, rely on the writing of Mark, even though Matthew was an eyewitness and Mark was not? 

This skepticism, of course, assumes that Matthew primarily utilized Mark, yet this theory has never been conclusively established, certainly not to a degree that would have the author of Matthew actually dependent on Mark’s Gospel. Thomas Jefferson utilized George Mason’s Virginia Constitution when writing the Declaration of Independence, but utilization does not equate to absolute reliance. No historian would argue that Jefferson was helpless in his task of authoring America’s independence document absent Mason’s handiwork. Accordingly, even if Matthew had Mark’s Gospel at his disposal, it hardly discredits the notion that the apostle himself wrote the Gospel of Matthew. 

The strongest evidence attesting to Matthew’s authorship is the fact that four ancient sources, not counting the title itself, specifically attribute the Gospel to Matthew, the disciple of Jesus. Those sources are Papias of Asia Minor, Irenaeus of Gaul, Pantaenus, and Origen of Alexandria and Caesarea, all significant leaders or writers in the early Christian community. Moreover, the Gospel of Matthew was in wide circulation in the early church, and was circulated as an account written by Matthew, with no apparent question or contestation.