Biblical scholars

George Dunbar Kilpatrick:

Books were originally published with no names attached.

Titles were attached decades later.

Most scholars reject apostolic authorship.

gMatthew is the work of an unknown diciple (not Matthew).

It’s the common position that gMatthew was originally written in Greek by a non-eyewitness (Raymond E. Brown).

Francis Watson argues that the Didachist notes gMatthew as “The Gospel of Our Lord”.

Titles

(early as 125 CE?)

If this interpretation of Papias is correct, there are several historical problems. First, modern specialists in language hold that the author of Matthew wrote in Greek, not Hebrew or Aramaic. Second, most scholars accept the Two – Source theory (see Chapter 15 , “ The Synoptic Problem, ” in this volume). This theory requires that the author of Matthew knew and used Greek versions of Mark and Greek Q as sources. Third, the gospel contains sayings and sayings collections, but is itself not a collection of sayings such as Proverbs or the Gospel of Thomas . In short, Papias ’ description does not correspond well with the New Testament.