The four New Testament gospels were written anonymously and only
attributed to the apostles whose names they now bear later in the second
century. If we rely on those attributions, only Matthew and John
actually knew Jesus, since Mark and Luke were not among the twelve
disciples. The second-century Church Fathers also formed the view that
the "disciple whom Jesus loved" in John's Gospel was John himself,
basing this on the assumption that John was being modest. On the basis
of these multiple assumptions, John was the gospel author who knew Jesus
best.
However, modern scholars say that the gospels could not
have been written by eyewitnesses to the events they protray. On this
view, the Church Fathers were mistaken in attributing the two gospels to
Matthew and John. None of the gospel writers even knew Jesus
personally.
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