The first Gospel was probably not Matthew
Did you know the Gospels were most likely written in a different order than they appear, and none of them right away?
Open a New Testament and Matthew comes first. But most scholars think Mark was written earliest, around forty years after Jesus' death, and that Matthew and Luke both had Mark in front of them as they wrote, keeping most of his stories and adding their own. John, the most distinctive of the four, likely came last, near the end of the first century.
And here is the detail that reframes the whole shelf: the oldest Christian writings are not gospels at all. Paul's letters came first, written to young communities while the eyewitness generation was still alive. Read in composition order, the New Testament is not a biography followed by mail. It is mail from the middle of the story — and then four tellings of how it began.
Where to see it: read the opening chapters of Mark, then Matthew 3–4. Whole sentences repeat nearly word for word, and that shared text is why most scholars think one writer had the other's scroll on the desk. For the older letters: 1 Thessalonians is commonly dated around 50 CE, roughly two decades before most datings of Mark.
Sources
- Markan priority and the synoptic problemthe majority view on Gospel order; Paul's letters are commonly dated from around 50 CE
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Uncanon presents the Bible in composition order with scholarly context before every passage — Setting the Scene, What Scholars Say, and Things to Notice — plus an AI guide you can ask questions at any point.