Baha'u'llah wrote:
The Four Gospels were written after Him [Christ]. John, Luke, Mark and
Matthew - these four wrote after Christ what they remembered of His
utterances.
(From a previously untranslated Tablet)
This passage seems to say that all four of the Gospel writers were disciples
and that the common attributions of authorship are correct. The Gospels
were written by disciples based on their memory of what Jesus said. I have
long assumed that though Baha'u'llah said this He didn't really mean it, but
I have no proof of that. I have to imagine there are others here who don't
believe that the Gospels were written by disciples. So I'm interested to
know how people deal with this passage. I'm not sure why Baha'u'llah would
say this if He didn't believe it. It appears to be something He said in
response to a question. I certainly have difficulty seeing the Gospels as
penned by disciples based on their recollections. My view on the dating of
the Gospels would make it unlikely that they were still alive. Also, it's
difficult to believe that the Gospels are entirely based on their memories
of what Jesus said given the propensity of the Gospel writers to make what
appear to be intentional editorial changes. Matthew usually changes
'kingdom of God' to 'kingdom of heaven,' and I don't think that was because
Matthew's memory was off.
The only other statement regarding authorship is by 'Abdu'l-Baha:
Know ye that the Torah is that which was revealed in the Tablets to Moses,
may peace be upon Him, or that to which He was bidden. But the stories are
historical narratives and were written after Moses, may peace be upon Him.
(From a previously untranslated Tablet)
His indication that Moses Himself didn't write the Pentateuch seems
reasonable to me.
Regards,
David
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