The Year I Read the Bible with Laurie Larsen

Episode 15: Who Were the Authors of the Gospels? (Part 1 of 2)

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Laurie starts a two-part series on the authors of the four gospels.  Today is a deep dive into what we know about Matthew and Mark.  Matthew was a despised tax collector who cheated his countrymen when Jesus asked him to follow him.  Matthew dropped everything to do just that.  Mark is only mentioned obscurely once in the story of Jesus.  He didn't know him personally.  How is he qualified to write a gospel?

Laurie's guest today is the delightful Melissa Henderson, friend and author of children's books and hundreds of short inspirational stories and articles.  You will love hearing her insights on this topic.

Check out Melissa's website for all the details about her work.

Hi, I'm your host Lori Larson, and this is the year I read the Bible. Welcome a Lifelong Christian. I thought I was familiar with the Bible, but in 2023 accepted the challenge of reading the whole thing, cover to cover. Whenever I encountered something I didn't understand or wanted to learn more. I jotted it down, but I kept reading to stay on schedule. Then I reached the end Imagine Confetti rating down on me, and a huge sigh of relief. I had 40 topics to research in 2024. I started diving into all those topics. I did research, I wrote blogs and I shared them with whoever might wanna learn too. And in 2025, the project continues. I published a book containing all my essays, and now a podcast. Is there something you can learn from that dusty book that sits on all of our shelves? Yes. Yes, there is. Let's dive into the year I read the Bible. Today we're going to talk about who were the authors of the Gospels part one of two. In my trek reading through the Bible in a year, I had now completed the Old Testament. Insert celebration and cheers here. Maybe the pop of a champagne cork. Ha ha. Yes. Reaching the New Testament was certainly a cause for celebration because I was now embarking on the central figure of the faith of Christianity. Jesus Christ. The New Testament begins with four books known as the Gospels. The four gospels are the books of Matthew, mark, Luke, and John. They collectively tell us the stories of Jesus when he was born carrying out his earthly ministry was crucified and resurrected. Often the gospel writers chose the same events to feature in their individual accounts. But there are also stories that appear in one or two of the gospels, but not the others. This is understandable. It's not like all four sat at a long table consulting with each other in the creation of their books. Hey Matthew, did you include this parable? No. Okay. I will. Although the four gospels give us, as Christians, many stories and accounts of Jesus's teachings while he was on earth. John's gospel assures us in John 21, 25 new international version. Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. So who are these men who wrote the gospels of the life of Jesus that we are still learning from thousands of years later? When I started researching the answer, it interested me to know that not all of them were members of Jesus's 12 disciples who followed him around during his ministry. In fact, only two of them were Matthew and John. Let's dig into a little bit of research to get more familiar with all four Matthew. The New Testament begins with the book of Matthew, which of course means that Matthew also is the start of the four Gospels. Before leaving everything behind to follow Jesus. Matthew was employed as a tax collector in the New Testament. Tax collectors were considered despicable and dishonest people. I never really understood that. I mean, we have the Internal Revenue Service in modern United States. Those are basically the tax collectors of our time. IRS employees don't have the same horrid reputation. Right. No, they're different. In an article by James m Rockford, I learned that in Jesus' time, quote, taxes weren't similar to modern day taxes, which pay for education, roads, and other public services. These taxes went directly to Rome, the occupying empire dominating Israel. In other words, the Jewish people were. Paying their oppressors to oppress them. End quote, Rockford's. Article tax collectors in Jesus's day, goes on to say, in Jesus's day, the Roman Empire overpowered the nation of Israel as a foreign imperial power. Consequently, the Romans extracted taxes from the Jewish people. Yeah, the Romans would buy certain Jewish provinces for periods of five years. These Roman businessmen would employ local Jewish men to collect the taxes from these territories. The tax collectors would then tax imports, exports, bridge tolls, road money, town dues, and much more. The highest bidder would win the territory, and consequently, the tax collectors would skim money off the top for themselves. End quote. Okay. Now I understand the Jews hatred for their own people who were partnering with their oppressors to treat their countrymen unfairly. Matthew was hated by his peers, and he wasn't the only hated tax collector mentioned in the gospels. Zacchaeus was another one. The Gospel of Luke Chapter 19 starts out with the story of Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector, and very wealthy. He wanted to see Jesus as he walked down the street in Jericho, but Zacchaeus was short and couldn't see over the crowd, so he climbed into a sycamore fig tree to get a glimpse. Jesus looked up and greeted him by name and invited himself to Zacchaeus house for dinner. Although the people around them started grumbling about how Jesus should not be fraternizing with a hated person such as Zacchaeus, the man himself announced that he would give half his possession to the poor and make right with anyone that he had cheated. Jesus responded. Luke 19 nine. Today, salvation has come to this house because this man too is a son of Abraham. For the son of man came to seek and to save the lost back to Matthew. I imagine he was having the same change of heart as Zacchaeus. When Jesus approached him, maybe his conscience was bothering him. After years of betraying his people for profit and defending his actions to his critics, being in the presence of Jesus made him realize that he was capable of much greater things than these. In Matthew's own book, chapter nine, he recounts the story of his encounter with Jesus, Matthew nine, nine through 13 in the new international version. As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. Follow me. He told him and Matthew got up and followed him while Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him. Jesus said. It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick for, I have not come to call the righteous but sinners personally. It is a huge comfort to me that Jesus feels that way because guess what? We're all sinners and he still wants us to follow him. He doesn't turn his back on us just because we're not perfect. Moving on from Matthew. The second gospel is written by Mark, also known in the Bible as John Mark. He was not one of Jesus's 12, so how did he get the material to write his gospel? The answer is that he was a very active participant in the growth of the church. Detailed in the book of Acts of the Apostles following Jesus's resurrection. Let's take a look at where Mark is listed in the Bible. Jack Ava's article. John Mark, author of the Gospel of Mark, was a huge help here. It is believed that Mark was present when Jesus was arrested on the Mount of Olives after being betrayed by Judas Iscariot, as he wrote this somewhat mysterious reference in his gospels. Scholars believe he's referring to himself, quote, a young man wearing nothing but a linen garment was following Jesus. When they seized him, he fled naked, leaving his garment behind. End quote Mark 1451 and 52. He is first mentioned by name in the book of Acts in connection with his mother, Simon Peter. Jesus's disciple had been thrown in prison by Herod Opus, who was persecuting the early church. In answer to the church's prayers, an angel came to Peter and helped him escape. Peter hurried to the house of Mary, who was the mother of John Mark, where she was holding a prayer gathering of many of the church members, acts 1212. We see that Mark's family actively supports spreading the word of the church of Jesus. Not only does his Mother Mary offer her home for large gatherings of all the believers, but his cousin Barnabas, becomes a valued travel partner with the apostle Paul. Barnabas puts in a good word for his young cousin to Paul, and Mark becomes an active evangelist in the book of Acts, spreading the word of Jesus to all the world. But his career starts out on a sour note. Paul made his first missionary journey to Cyprus, accompanied by Barnabas and Mark. When they sailed on, mark left them and returned to Jerusalem. No explanation is given for his departure and Bible Scholars have been speculating ever since. Some think that young Mark was homesick. Others say. He might have been ill from malaria. A popular theory is that Mark was imagining all the hardships that lay ahead and was understandably afraid regardless of the reason Mark's behavior, soured him with Paul and caused an argument between Paul and Barnabas Over Mark's future, you'll find that in Acts 1539. Paul refused to take John Mark on his second missionary journey, but cousin Barnabas still had faith in him. Barnabas took Mark under his wing and mentored him on several trips. Over time, Paul changed his mind and forgave Mark in two Timothy four 11. Paul says, only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you because he is helpful to me in my ministry. New international version. The last mention of Mark occurs in one Peter five 13 where Peter calls Mark his son. No doubt, a sentimental reference because Mark had been so helpful to him. John Mark's gospel may have been told to him by Peter because the two spent so much time together. Mark, coming from a wealthy family. Would've been much more educated than Simon Peter, who was a fisherman in a small town and probably didn't have much education. Although Peter would've been an ideal candidate to write a gospel himself, it is believed by some that Mark wrote the gospel based on his close relationship and learnings from Peter. We've got two more gospel writers to cover, but I'll break that into a separate essay. Keep listening and enjoying. Let's end in prayer. Dear God, thank you for the presence of the four gospels in the Bible, they allow us to learn so much about the life and times of your precious son Jesus. They help us to imagine being right beside Him as one of his followers. Please always keep our minds open to learning more about you and your church. Amen. And now stay tuned for my chat with my latest guest.

Laurie:

am so excited to welcome today one of my very good friends. She is an author. She is a wonderful, inspiring, encouraging person, and I know you're gonna love her too. Her name is Melissa Henderson. Welcome Melissa to the podcast.

Melissa:

Thank you Lord. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here and, discuss some things from the Bible with you.

Laurie:

That's great. don't you start out by telling us a little bit about yourself, about your life, about your writing, and anything that you wanna share about your books, your articles, and then also, give us an idea of how you and I became acquainted with each other.

Melissa:

Oh, sure, sure. Well, I write inspirational messages, sometimes humming with humor as my bio says. I write serious things at times, but I love to write about our grandkids and daily life and the fun experiences. But I also write some inspirational, things. I write for different publications online and in print, guideposts and, different publications. But my husband Allen and I have, originally from Virginia. And we moved here about eight years ago. We've been married for over 46 years. Our son, married a local girl from South Carolina and about eight years ago, they called and said, we're having your first grandbaby. Will you move here from Virginia? We never thought we would leave Virginia, but we said yes. We'll be there. So we had to learn the, low country traditions and low country, life, which we love. And, we have now two grandchildren, Rowan, who's eight, and Eden, who is four and a half. And you have to say the half because that is extremely important. And you and I met, when we were trying to get the, a CF. W American Christian Fiction Writers Group started in the low country area and a group of us met at a local library. Remember that day there were several people there and,

Laurie:

Yep.

Melissa:

uh, we. Had a room at the library and we just kind of discussed, well, what would it look like if we had a chapter in this area, and who would come and would anyone come? But we had a great showing that first day. So,

Laurie:

Mm-hmm.

Melissa:

the group started and then we were like, well, Laura, kinda said she would volunteer to be president, and we were like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Laurie:

And you volunteered to be secretary.

Melissa:

Yes, yes. And so we got started, that way to know each other. And throughout the years we've just got to know each other even more and more. And we just, you know, have developed a wonderful friendship and, continue on with our A CFW, South Carolina Low Country chapter, which is a mouthful, but, we're just excited that our group has grown so much and not everyone writes fiction. Some people write poetry, some people write nonfiction. You know, a little bit of everything. So

Laurie:

It's a really

Melissa:

that,

Laurie:

group. When I first moved from Illinois to South Carolina, I was looking for a

Melissa:

wow.

Laurie:

chapter of A CFW, and the closest one was like four hours away. like, oh no. And then president of that distant chapter had the idea that, you guys have enough national organization members in the eastern part of South Carolina that you can have your own chapter. So that was exciting, except that month after we chartered the chapter and did all the paperwork to get it started, lo and behold, that's when COVID hit. So we were unable to meet in person. We're glad

Melissa:

Oh,

Laurie:

past that, aren't we?

Melissa:

that's right. We persevered and we got through all that,

Laurie:

well, you mentioned when you moved from Virginia to South Carolina you had to get used to the low country ways. So what's your favorite thing about living in this part of South Carolina? Right on the coast,

Melissa:

Well, of course being near the grandkids and our son and our daughter-in-law's the very best thing. But it's nice to be so close to the beach because the beach is a very relaxing place for us. And, just being able to. Drive over the bridge and there we are, at Sullivan's Island or IOP is palms the area, is full of history, but it's that relaxing ocean waves just lapping at the shore, walking on the beach, tickling your toes in the water, looking for seashells. It's very relaxing.

Laurie:

Oh,

Melissa:

I love it.

Laurie:

a hundred percent. I've always been an ocean lover. Absolutely always loved the ocean, and I grew up and raised my family. Almost a thousand miles away from the ocean. So when I got the chance to relocate, I did it and probably the first year I moved here, I was at the beach at least three or four times a week.

Melissa:

Oh.

Laurie:

get there quite that often, but I still absolutely love it every time I go.

Melissa:

Yeah, it's a beautiful, beautiful area,

Laurie:

yes. Well, here I am in my journey, the year I read the Bible. We are actually at the gospels. We're in the New Testament now. Yay. And the essay that we're gonna talk about today, which I just read to the listeners. the first two books of the Gospels, by Matthew and Mark. Next week will be, Luke and John. There's four gospels. I thought it would be interesting to do a deep dive into who are the gospel writers and in the case of Matthew. He was actually a follower. He was one of Jesus' close knit disciples that followed him around for the three years that Jesus, did his earthly ministry. That's not true for all the gospel writers, but for Matthew that was the case. He was a tax collector under the Roman Empire government. So unlike someone working. As a tax collector, or I guess the closest thing in our country would be for the IRS, right?

Melissa:

Right.

Laurie:

Tax collectors in the biblical times, although they were Jewish, were dishonest and abused the Jews with unfair collection of money, so. What do you think Matthew's life was like as a Jewish tax collector under Roman rule?

Melissa:

Well, Matthew was considered a traitor by some of the Jews and. The working for that Roman Empire caused him to be someone who people were fearful of. You know, here comes the guy, he's wanting our money, he's wanting our funds. What are we going to do if we don't have the funds to give, will we be killed? Will we be imprisoned? What will the consequences be? So, if the people were not rich and they did not have the money, they were in poverty. They're full of despair, those fears. So seeing Matthew coming. I would think there was not, a notice that, okay, I'm coming tomorrow at five 30, you have the money. He would come into town, it's time for the money go door to door to get the money. So I think that, the people didn't trust him. I wonder what that did to his personality. He knew he wasn't trusted by everyone. He knew that he was considered a traitor. So his emotions were probably up and down, like, okay, this is my job, this is what I have to do. Did he keep money for himself as some of the tax collectors did? Did he give it all to his bosses? We don't know all that, but even when he left his position as a tax collector and followed Jesus, some people still didn't trust him because of his past.

Laurie:

And they were

Melissa:

I, I.

Laurie:

under the Romans. Today's world, what do we pay like, 8% sales tax on things, or our, tax bracket of income is, you know, 25, 30 5%, whatever. And in the Roman times, it was way more than that. Like if I earned. A hundred dollars, I had to give$75 to the Roman

Melissa:

Yeah.

Laurie:

And that was unfair. And it was not just that, they were tax collectors for an unfair government. were of the same race of the people who were being misused and abused by the government. So here's this. Jewish guy who he's probably making lots of money himself from

Melissa:

Yeah.

Laurie:

for that position. He's wearing these fancy clothes, I imagine, and he's watching his countrymen. He may not know them personally or he may know them personally, come up in their rags because they have no money left over for. Clothes and here he is wearing a fine gown. I can see how it would cause a lot of hatred and resentment among the Jews of the time

Melissa:

And especially some people that might have known him personally, oh, well look at that guy. He in the fancy robes collecting all our money. Well, hey, I grew up with him. How would we feel? I. Played, you know, in the dirt with him, and now he's doing this,

Laurie:

Yeah.

Melissa:

There's certain things that the Bible doesn't give those specific things, but that probably was the situation, if someone knew him personally, Hey, here he comes again. I remember when Matthew was just a wee boy and, he, who knew he was gonna grow up to be a tax collector, you know?

Laurie:

We had such fond hopes for him. Such high hopes.

Melissa:

Right, right.

Laurie:

Yeah.

Melissa:

you know, he was working out God's plan. We all have a purpose, so.

Laurie:

So then Jesus does come along. And asked him to follow him, and Matthew immediately accepted, which makes me think that he was ready for something different. He was tired of all the persecution and maybe he was feeling guilty for his choices. But Jesus told him it's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick for, I have not come to call the righteous. But sinners, was he talking about Matthew himself? What do you think about that?

Melissa:

Well, I think, God has a plan for every creation, all of his creation, so we don't always know that plan, but we can rest assured his plan is best. So perhaps. Matthew was worn out and tired, and from the constant ridicule, when Jesus called, he didn't pause. He just, okay, I'm going, I'm going with Jesus. Was he exhausted? We, we weren't there. So we don't know exactly, how he felt, but I can just imagine after all the ridicule, all the, hatred towards him when Jesus hauled him. He could have felt a sense of peace. I'm gonna go, I'm gonna do this now. I'm gonna follow Jesus. And I think about how often we are so. Overworked, overtired, stressed from fear of the unknown, doing the same thing every day. Not happy in our jobs. Maybe, you hear people say that all the time, oh, I wish I could do something else. Even if someone knows what they're doing is wrong. And Matthew knew he's collecting money from people that don't have the money. So it made me think, he listened, he listened to Jesus. He followed, just dropped everything. And, do we do that? Do we get that nudge and say. I'm gonna follow, or do we say, ah, let me, you know, let me just do this a little bit longer. I'm making good money at this, so, maybe I'll stick with it no matter the consequences, it'll get better one day but, Matthew can be an example of trusting without knowing the outcome,

Laurie:

sacrificing, like you said, a very luxurious lifestyle. I imagine plenty of food and probably comfortable. Furniture and bed and house and know, he didn't have all that when he was following Jesus. It was sandals in the dust and sleeping on, mats out in the open. He gave up a lot, but he did it

Melissa:

Food where you could,

Laurie:

yeah. And look what, uh, legacy he left for Christians. Even now reading his words. This man

Melissa:

Yes.

Laurie:

so hated, I have a fondness for Matthew for these very reasons because he could have just stayed with what he was doing and he uprooted his life to do something new and different and completely unknown and look at. at the results of, of what he's done. He's taught so many people about Jesus,

Melissa:

yes.

Laurie:

Let's move on to Mark. He wrote the second Gospel and in my essay, I included some really interesting facts, some. Mark the first time he's included in the Jesus story. Scholars believe he is referring to himself in this verse. Mark 1451. A young man wearing nothing but a linen garment was following Jesus. When they seized him, he fled naked, leaving his garment behind. He was referring to himself, they think in the third person as if he were a character. And then, it turns out that his entire family has given, Jesus support in his ministry. As we find out after the crucifixion and the resurrection, mainly in, the Book of Acts and the creation of the new church Mark's family, housed many, of the early Christians who were starting the church. when Mark himself personally got involved in the early church. was supposed to be on a missionary trip with the Apostle Paul and he abandoned him. What do you think about that?

Melissa:

I think Mark is an example of allowing fear or feeling, not worthy or less than. He chose to give up at that particular time instead of persevering through the trials. But. One example of people failing when following Jesus and then becoming exceptional servant. I think we may have all known people who leave the church because something happens with it's personal or within the church or outside the church, physical or spiritual. They feel abandoned by God and choose to leave the faith or leave the church, but yet. Time passes and then you hear, oh, they're back to church. Oh, they're learning again. They're serving again. And I love that God never gives up on us. God didn't give up on Mark. I love that God seeks us when we stray and mark the same He got finds us. He leads us back to him and he restores our relationship with him because his sheep are never lost. So even though Mark is like, okay, I'm done. I'm gonna do, something else now, when we have God in our hearts, God will find us, you know, if we try to stray away. I wrote down Ezekiel 34 11. The, new international version says where, this is what the sovereign Lord says. I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. So we hear about people who, bring others to Christ through their words and actions. So looking at Mark, okay, he left. But then he came back. That's can be an example for all of us, fear and doubt can come in and our faith can waver, but God never leaves us.

Laurie:

God doesn't pick perfect people to represent him or to do his work. There are no perfect people. And by reading through the Bible I can, point to example after example where God shows imperfect people who have made terrible mistakes David, with Bathsheba, David was man after God's own heart. And, he did all kinds of terrible, treachery to get Bathsheba, a married woman, to be his own. And, God, continued to bless him after he, you know, David realize what a terrible mistake he made and ask forgiveness. I guess what I'm saying is we don't think that there's no place for us in God's work just because we're not perfect. There's example after example in the Bible where God to. Pick out imperfect people or people who have made mistakes or people who you wouldn't think would be in the biblical story, but they are.

Melissa:

And that's so true. We can learn so much from each other. In looking throughout every church, there's no one in there that's perfect. We all have a background. We all have a life to live a life that we have lived mistakes. What we do with those mistakes, how we learn from those mistakes can lead us closer to God and by our example, can lead others closer to God. Mark was a human. Just like we talked about Matthew, they are, not without fault as we all are not without fault.

Laurie:

Exactly. it's encouraging. It takes a load off. Like I couldn't possibly be. A worthy representative of God because I've done X, Y, and Z in my past. But then, if you look in God's word, I mean the Bible is God's word. He shared these stories with us because it would be a roadmap to following our own life. does that time and time again. He picks the imperfect so that, I think that's the. To me, that's the end of Mark's story is that he was imperfect, but he still made a huge impact. Well, Matthew and Mark, actually, both of them. Yeah.

Melissa:

I agree. I agree.

Laurie:

Is there anything else that you wanted to share about Matthew and Mark that we haven't talked about yet?

Melissa:

It's just that I love that we can read the Bible over and over and glean something new every time, depending on what's going on in our life. And I often say this because we can do Bible studies, we can do the year in the Bible, and each time we read it, depending on what is happening in our own situations, we can glean something different. And that's a God thing, that's God sending us his message through his word, and I love that. Okay.

Laurie:

That's so true. I've talked, throughout this, the year I read the Bible project about the first time I read the Bible straight through. I was a high school student. I think I was 16 and I used to. Read a little bit every night before he went to bed, and I would jot things in the Bible. I would circle things or I'd put like happy faces or hearts. And it's so funny to go back and see what notes I made or what, stuck out to me at that time. Because now. completely different. I get a different take on things or I understand a little bit more. But, whatever stage of life we're in, the Bible has a special meaning to whatever we're reading. Well Melissa, thank you so much for joining me today. I'm gonna wrap it up there, but I know you are coming back, I believe in about a month's time to, guest with me on another episode. So I will look forward to that as well. All

Melissa:

Sounds good. Thank you so much. I really enjoyed chatting

and that's it for today. Thank you very much for being here with me on The Year I Read the Bible Podcast. We'll be back with another episode next week. If you enjoy this podcast, please do all the normal things to spread the word: like it, review it, share it with your friends. If you are interested in additional The Year I Read the Bible resources such as the book, the video channel, and the blog, I will certainly include the links in the show notes. And I'd love to hear about your own journey to read the Bible cover to cover. Have you done it or are you doing it right now? Please reach out to me and let me know how it's going. Until next time, it's Laurie Larsen with The Year I Read the Bible. Bye.

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