Protestantism

» Brian Tubbs - Canon

In response to Clarification posted by Migisi:

Respectfully, it seems you see the early church in a cynical light. The testimony of the early church - and I mean the 1st and 2nd century early church - is that the four Gospels we have in our canon were the ones that were in circulation and wide acceptance. That's just a fact. The other "Gospels" (Thomas, Peter, etc) came later. The 4th century councils which confirmed the canon were not exercising some arbitrary "We like these...we don't like those" kind of selective methodology. They were codifying what was ALREADY largely accepted by the congregations throughout the Christian world.

In the case of the four Gospels, the FACT is that they were in wide circulation by the dawn of the 2nd century (at the latest). Whether we are able to TODAY conclusively prove apostolic authorship doesn't change the fact that they were apparently APPROVED by the apostles! THAT is significant. In other words, the early church - and, again, I'm talking the 1st century and 2nd century church - accepted these four Gospels as having apostolic authority, meaning that apostles were to some degree INVOLVED in and APPROVED of their content.

This CONFIDENCE that the early church placed in the Gospels - uniquely so above the other "Gospels" - is historically verifiable. So....

Your arguments and Pink's smiley face notwithstanding, the credibility of the Gospels remain even if we can't prove beyond all doubt that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wrote them. (Of course, I believe they did).