These same individuals have concluded that Mark must have written the first of the Gospels, since it seems to add little to those of Matthew and Luke. The critics have also assumed that Matthew and Luke used the book of Mark to compile their Gospels and that they consulted a supplementary source​—a document the scholars call Q (from the German Quelle, or “source”).

Was the Gospel of Mark Written First?

The theory that Mark’s Gospel was written first and served as a source for Matthew and Luke is not based on “one logically cast-iron argument,” admits The Anchor Bible Dictionary. Yet, many scholars feel that Mark wrote his Gospel before Matthew and Luke wrote theirs because, they claim, Mark adds little to the other Gospels. For example, 19th-century Bible scholar Johannes Kuhn insisted that Mark’s Gospel must have been written first. Otherwise, Kuhn said, “one would have to imagine that Mark had cut the two scrolls of Matthew and Luke up into little snippets, mixed these together in a pot, and produced his Gospel from this mixture.”

Since Mark’s Gospel is the shortest, it is not surprising that it contains the least amount of unique material. Still, that does not prove that it must have been written first. Further, it is simply not true that Mark adds nothing to Matthew and Luke. In Mark’s vigorous, fast-moving account of Jesus’ ministry, there are actually more than 180 passages and fascinating details that are not found in Matthew and Luke, making it a truly unique account of Jesus’ life.​—See box on page 13.

The testimony of the early Church Fathers, including that of third-century theologian Origen, likewise suggests that the apostle Matthew was the first to write a Gospel. Origen wrote: “The first is written according to Matthew, the same that was once a publican, but afterwards an apostle of Jesus Christ, who having published it for the Jewish converts, wrote it in the Hebrew.” Obviously, Matthew, an apostle and eyewitness, did not need to plagiarize the writings of Mark, who was not an eyewitness.