“Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (xvi, 18, 19).
This passage was written at the beginning of the establishment of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, for the purpose of securing the recognition of the Church of Rome (the founding of which tradition assigned to Peter) as the church of Christ.
Bishop Marsh, in his Michaelis, says: “If the arguments in favor of a late date for the composition of St. Matthew’s Gospel be compared with those in favor of an early date, it will be found that the former greatly outweigh the latter.”
Dr. Davidson admits that Matthew is an anonymous work. He says: “The author, indeed, must ever remain unknown” (Introduction to the New Testament, p. 72).
Mark.
As to where the Gospel of Mark was written, whether in Asia, in Africa, or in Europe, is unknown. Some believe that it was written at Antioch; Chrysostom states that it was written at Alexandria; Irenaeus says that it was written at Rome. If it was written at Rome it was probably written in Latin instead of Greek. Smith’s “Bible Dictionary” concedes that “it abounds in Latin words.” The following is an example:
“And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many” (v. 9).
Commenting on this passage, the Rev. Dr. Giles says: “The Four Gospels are written in Greek, and the word ‘legion’ is Latin; but in Galilee and Perea the people spoke neither Latin nor Greek, but Hebrew, or a dialect of it. The word ‘legion’ would be perfectly unintelligible to the disciples of Christ, and to almost everybody in the country” (Christian Records, p. 197).
If it was written in Latin, then our Greek Mark, like Matthew, instead of being an original Gospel, is simply an unauthenticated translation.