Which Was the Fourth Gospel? The Order of the Gospels and the Unity of Scripture

Abstract

This article calls for consideration of the Cribbs—Shellard hypothesis that the fourth canonical Gospel to be written was Luke's. The evidence is not decisive and certainty is impossible, but is sufficient to require that the hypothesis be seriously entertained. Looking at the four canonical Gospels in the different light of a new hypothesis about their probable literary relationships proves theologically suggestive for Christian reading of Scripture. Studying the Gospels in the proposed order, and considering how each Evangelist may have responded to his predecessors yield better New Testament theology than the modern tendency to marginalize John. Gospel criticism can thus make surprising new impacts upon Christology.