Who Wrote the Gospels, and When

Jesus never wrote a book, a letter or a rule. Everything he said reaches us through other people: the memories of those who heard him, and four short books written decades later. Most Christians are handed those four as a single voice, every line equally close to his own lips. The books themselves tell a more interesting story.

If you grew up hearing "the Bible says" as if it were one voice from the sky, you're not imagining the problem. The four Gospels were written by different people, at different times, from different sources, and they say so. Most churchgoers have never been shown this. It is standard history, taught in seminaries across the spectrum, and it changes how you hear every quotation.

Measured against the center