The Short Answer
The New Testament does not give a publication date for Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. But the clearest early Christian testimony says that Matthew was written first. Origen says that, concerning the four uncontroverted Gospels, he had learned by tradition that “the Gospel according to Matthew…was written first.” Irenaeus also says that Matthew issued a written Gospel among the Hebrews while Peter and Paul were preaching at Rome.
That answer needs one important clarification: Scripture often uses “the gospel” to mean the good news of Jesus Christ, not first of all a book title. So the gospel was preached before the four written Gospel accounts were completed.
Why This Question Matters
The question “which Gospel was written first?” is not only about chronology. It often carries a deeper concern: Can I trust that the four Gospels faithfully hand down the apostolic witness to Jesus?
That is the right concern. If the Gospels were late, disconnected religious reflections, that would raise one kind of question. But if they come from the apostolic circle and were received very early as the Church’s written testimony to Christ, that gives a very different picture.
The earliest Christian witnesses did not treat the four Gospels as rival versions of Jesus. They spoke of one Gospel of Christ given in four accounts. Origen, for example, argued that though the Gospel was written “by several hands,” it is “in effect one,” because the Christ of whom all the evangelists write is one. His discussion of the one Gospel written by four evangelists is especially helpful for keeping the question in its proper frame.
What Scripture Says
Scripture does not say, “Matthew was written first,” or “Mark was written first.” The Bible gives us the Gospel accounts themselves, but not a dated table of composition.
What Scripture does show is that “the gospel” was first a proclaimed message. Jesus says in Mark 13:10, “And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations.” That statement is not about deciding which book was written first. It is about the spread of the good news of the kingdom before the nations.
The apostles speak the same way. Paul refers to “the word of the truth of the gospel” that had come to the Colossians and was bearing fruit in the world in Colossians 1:5-6. The gospel, in that sense, is the apostolic proclamation of what God has done in Christ.
This matters because the written Gospels did not create the Christian message out of nothing. They preserved and handed down the apostolic testimony to Jesus. Matthew begins with Jesus as the Son of David and Son of Abraham in Matthew 1:1, placing Him in the promises given to Israel. Mark begins with the “beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,” as Irenaeus notes when discussing Mark’s opening proclamation. John bears witness to Jesus as the Lamb of God in John 1:29, and Origen connects that testimony with the reconciliation of the world in Christ.
So Scripture establishes the priority of the preached gospel message. The early Christian witnesses help answer the narrower historical question: which written Gospel came first?
How the Earliest Christians Understood This
The strongest direct statement comes from Origen in the third century. In his Commentary on Matthew, he writes: “Concerning the four Gospels which alone are uncontroverted in the Church of God under heaven, I have learned by tradition that the Gospel according to Matthew…was written first.” That is not a verse of Scripture, and it should not be treated as one. But it is an important early witness to how Christians close to the ancient tradition understood the order.
Irenaeus, writing in the second century, also gives weight to Matthew’s early place. He says that “Matthew also issued a written Gospel among the Hebrews in their own dialect, while Peter and Paul were preaching at Rome.” His statement in Against Heresies Book III does not merely identify Matthew as a text; it ties Matthew’s written Gospel to the apostolic age and to the Hebrew or Jewish audience.
A related fragment attributed to Irenaeus says that Matthew was written for the Jews, because they placed special importance on the Messiah being of the seed of David. That fits Matthew’s opening genealogy and his concern to present Jesus as the promised Christ.
Tertullian likewise places great importance on apostolic priority. In Against Marcion, he argues that the gospel that first filled the world, rather than a later altered gospel, is the apostolic one. His point is not a detailed chronology of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but it supports the broader early Christian concern: the true Gospel is the one handed down from the apostles, not a later revision.
Common Misunderstandings
One misunderstanding is to confuse “first Gospel preached” with “first Gospel written.” The gospel Jesus commanded to be proclaimed to all nations was the good news of the kingdom and of Christ Himself. The written accounts came as faithful testimony to that same message.
Another misunderstanding is to think the early Christian claim that Matthew was first automatically settles every modern literary question. The early witnesses give historical testimony, not a full modern analysis of sources, style, and wording. Still, if the question is, “What did the earliest Christians say?” the answer is clear: they preserved a tradition of Matthew’s priority.
A third misunderstanding is to pit the four Gospels against each other. Irenaeus strongly resisted those who tried to have more or fewer than the four received Gospels, arguing for the fourfold Gospel with Christ at the center in Against Heresies Book III. Origen likewise spoke of four Gospels, yet one Gospel, because they bear witness to one Lord.
What This Means for Christians Today
For Christians today, the main takeaway is not merely, “Matthew came first.” It is that the written Gospels belong to the apostolic witness to Jesus Christ. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are not detached spiritual essays. They are the Church’s received testimony to the Lord who was preached, crucified, risen, and proclaimed among the nations.
Matthew’s early place also helps explain why Christians have often read it as a doorway into the Gospel story. It begins with Israel’s promises, Abraham, David, and the Messiah. It teaches the kingdom, discipleship, righteousness, mercy, judgment, and obedience to Jesus.
But the first written Gospel is not the only Gospel Christians need. The earliest witnesses did not choose Matthew in order to silence Mark, Luke, or John. They received the fourfold witness as one Gospel of Christ.
Keep Studying
For a deeper study of Matthew’s witness to Jesus, see Matthew: The Chief Gospel. For the way early evangelists used the Old Testament to proclaim Christ, see Prove It: Old Testament Proofs That Jesus is the Messiah.
Key passages and witnesses to study next include Jesus’ words about the gospel being preached to all nations in Mark 13:10, Matthew’s opening identification of Jesus in Matthew 1:1, Origen’s statement that Matthew was written first, and Irenaeus’s testimony that Matthew issued a written Gospel among the Hebrews.
