The Origin of the Gospels

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The July issue of The Church Quarterly Review in 1922 contained an article by William Lockton in which the author challenged the scholarly consensus concerning the solution to the Synoptic Problem. This important study, which is now in the public domain, was later to be of great importance to Rev. Dr. Robert L. Lindsey as further confirmation of Lindsey’s growing conviction that the Gospel of Mark is a highly edited epitome of the Gospel of Luke.

Front cover of the issue of The Church Quarterly Review in which Lockton’s groundbreaking article, “The Origin of the Gospels” appeared.

The July issue of The Church Quarterly Review in 1922 contained an article by William Lockton in which the author challenged the scholarly consensus concerning the solution to the Synoptic Problem. This important study, which is now in the public domain, was later to be of great importance to Rev. Dr. Robert L. Lindsey as further confirmation of Lindsey’s growing conviction that the Gospel of Mark is a highly edited epitome of the Gospel of Luke. In reissuing Lockton’s essay, “The Origin of the Gospels,” JerusalemPerspective.com does not endorse or affirm all of Lockton’s conclusions. Lockton’s dating of the Gospels and his identification of each Gospel’s author, for example, are highly speculative. Lockton’s analysis of the relationship between the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, on the other hand, are empirically based on observations of the Matthean-Lukan agreements against Mark, and the signs of Matthew’s literary dependence on Mark.

This online version of Lockton’s essay retains, as much as possible, Lockton’s original wording; however, the format of Scripture citations has been updated so that they can be recongnized by our search engine, and the bibliographical citations have been updated in order to conform to JP’s style. We have also added subheadings to assist readers in finding a particular section of the article. Readers can click here to access a PDF of the original essay: William Lockton, “The Origin of the Gospels,” The Church Quarterly Review 94 (1922): 216-239.

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The main building of the University of Winchester, formerly the Winchester Diocesan Training School, where William Lockton served as vice-principal. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

The main building of the University of Winchester, formerly the Winchester Diocesan Training School, where William Lockton served as vice-principal. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

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  • [1] F. J. Foakes Jackson and Kirsopp Lake, The Beginnings of Christianity, Part I: The Acts of the Apostles (5 vols.; London: Macmillan, 1920–33), 1:7. ↩
  • [2] James Moffatt, An Introduction to the Literature of the New Testament (New York: Scribners, 1921), 180. ↩
  • [3] See B. W. Bacon, The Beginnings of Gospel Story (London: Henry Frowde, 1909), 20. ↩
  • [4] Adolf Harnack, The Sayings of Jesus (trans. J. R. Wilkinson; New York: Putnam, 1908), 146, cf. 162-163. ↩
  • [5] John C. Hawkins, Horae Synopticae (2d ed.; Oxford: Clarendon, 1909), 113. ↩
  • [6] Adolf Harnack, The Acts of the Apostles (trans. J. R. Wilkinson; New York: Putnam, 1909), 124, 214. ↩
  • [7] Moffatt, Introduction, 534 ff. ↩
  • [8] Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 3:39. ↩
  • [9] Matt. 1:22; 2:15, 17, 23; 4:14; 8:17; 12:17; 13:35; 21:4; 27:9. ↩
  • [10] James Hastings, Dictionary of the Apostolic Church (2 vols.; New York: Scribners, 1916-1918), 1:26-7, 275-6. ↩
  • [11] Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 3:39. ↩
  • [12] Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 3:39. ↩
  • [13] Compare 1 Thess. 4:12 to Mark 4:11, and 1 Thess. 5:13 to Mark 9:50. ↩
  • [14] William Mitchell Ramsay, The Bearing of Recent Discovery on the Trustworthiness of the New Testament (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1915), 370-84. ↩
  • [15] F. C. Burkitt, The Gospel History and Us Transmission (2d ed.; Edinburgh : T&T Clark, 1907), 223. ↩
  • [16] Texte und Untersuchungen, 2 (1888): 170. ↩
  • [17] John Chapman, John the Presbyter and the Fourth Gospel (Oxford: Clarendon, 1911), 100. ↩

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  • William Lockton

    William Lockton

    William Lockton (1878-1937) was vice-principal and assistant chaplain at the Winchester Diocesan Training College from 1910-1936, where he also lectured in mathematics. Lockton proposed a “Luke first” solution to the Synoptic Problem, which became an important stepping stone for Dr. Robert Lindsey’s new approach to…
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