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The Clementine GospelTradition

For over 200 years there has beendebate over the order in which theGospels were written. But, just beforehe died, Bernard Orchard put forward asolution which makes the Markanpriority theory and ‘Q’redundant. Thisis a summary built on his solution.

The Apostle Matthew wrote his Gospelin Hebrew for the Jewish Christians

Bible : Codex Aureus Canterbury Matthew 1:18

Jesus, he needed an Apostle to indorsehis Gospel. So when he arrived inRome he asked Peter to do this.

Peter agreed and gave a talk in whichhe quoted alternatively from Matthewand Luke. In this manner he indorsedLuke’s Gospel by merging it with thatauthored by a well known Apostle.Peter’s secretary Mark used Greekshorthand to record Peter’s words.

Peter, not being a native Greekspeaker or an academic, spoke inkoine (common) Greek. Linguistsagree that what became known asMark’s Gospel has poor Greekgrammar and style. Mark’s shorthandfaithfully records Peter’s poor Greek.The large audience of leadingChristians: ‘Incessantly begged Markto make copies for them’. To whichMark agreed. When Peter saw thegood the Gospel of Mark wasachieving, he agreed to him issuing asecond edition: ‘to all the churches’.In the meantime Luke had publishedhis Gospel.

Archaeologists have found copies ofboth editions of Mark’s Gospel, whichare distinguished by one edition

to read at the: “Breaking of bread”(an early reference to the Eucharisticcelebration, Acts 2:42.)

It was in thematic form andillustrated the fulfilment of theJewish prophesies. Matthew or acolleague translated it into Greek.

Next, Luke wrote a Gospel in Greekin historical order for the Gentiles. AsLuke had not been a companion of

How the GospelsWere Written

The Clementine Tradition

omitting the last 12 verses. Thesefinal verses appear to record Peter’sanswers to questions asked at the endof the meeting.

So the Gospels were written in theMatthew – Luke – Mark- John order,but published in the: Matthew – Mark– Luke – Mark (2nd Edition) – Johnorder. This led to libraries cataloguingthem in differing sequences andpreachers quoting from them indiffering orders. In followinggenerations this would have causeddiscussion and raised questions. So,to clarify the situation, Clement ofAlexandria, the leading teacher in

Book of Kells 807 AD : Canon table

the diocese originally founded byMark, explained: “The first writtenof the Gospels were those with theinfancy narratives”.

At the time Jerome wrote, theMatthew- Mark – Luke – John orderwas popular, so he adopted it for hisLatin translation. He never said itwas the order of their composure.

Augustine of Hippo, writing his firstbook at about the same time,reported that: ‘it was said’ that ‘theorder of writing’ had been: Matthew-Mark-Luke- John. This waspresumably the order they had beenreceived by the library at Hippo.Augustine didn’t offer an opinionregarding their order of beingwritten and published. But someyears later, after careful internalanalysis of the Gospels, he stated inhis fourth book that Mark’s theologyhad been influenced by that of bothMatthew and Luke.

For more details: see Section 3 ofwww.churchinhistory.org

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