Regarding authorship, do the canonical gospels identify their authors?

• A. Some identify authors
• B. Some do not
• C. Only Luke identifies
• D. None identify authors

Answer: (D)

Authorship labeling in the canonical gospels is not done by naming the authors within the texts themselves. None of the gospel narratives provide a clear, self-contained statement like “I am so-and-so and I wrote this.” The titles that read “Gospel according to Matthew,” “Gospel according to Mark,” and so on appear in many ancient manuscripts, but these attributions come from later editorial practice and tradition rather than from the authors naming themselves in the writings.

Luke, for example, writes in his introduction that he set out to write an orderly account and to investigate what happened, but he does not explicitly name himself as the author in a way that identifies him by name within the narrative. The identification of who wrote each gospel largely rests on later church tradition, not on explicit self-identification in the texts themselves. Therefore, the canonical gospels do not identify their authors within the gospels, making the most accurate answer that none identify authors.