What are the arguments for/against anonymous authorship of the Gospels

What are the arguments for/against anonymous authorship of the Gospels

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In most articles I read online, the claim is that the Gospels originally were anonymous and that the current names were assigned to them in the 2nd century by the apostolic fathers in order to give them more authority.

What is the evidence for or against that?

And, if true, then why didn’t they pick someone highly respected like Peter or James instead of minor figures like Mark and Luke?

Here are two of the articles I’m referring to:

The original texts of the gospels had existed for about a hundred years with no names. The Church Fathers in the 2nd century CE assigned the names; none of the writers signed their work.

Source: World History Encyclopedia "The Gospels"

All four were anonymous (with the modern names of the "Four Evangelists" added in the 2nd century), almost certainly none were by eyewitnesses, and all are the end-products of long oral and written transmission

Source: Wikipedia "Gospel" quoting Reddish 2011, pp. 13, 42. (which I don’t have access to)

2 Comments

  • Reply February 26, 2024

    Troy Day

    well not Philip Williams @followers lets talk about this one a minute

  • Reply February 28, 2024

    Troy Day

    good2no Philip Williams @followers

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