The Origin of the Gospels

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.