I am compiling a bibliography on the Patristic reception of the Gospels. Please let me know what other monographs or articles should be added to this list. I also have bibliographies on particular Patristic figures such as Papias of Hierapolis, Justin Martyr, or Clement of Alexandria (on the so-called Secret Gospel of Mark) and their influence on the reception of the Gospels. I have also linked to some annotated bibliographies on Justin Martyr, Irenaeus of Lyon, and Tertullian of Carthage.

The Reception of the Canonical Four Gospels

Auwer, J. -M., and H. J. de Jonge, editors. The Biblical Canons. BETL CLXIII. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2003.

Aune, D. C. “The Meaning of Εύαγγέλιον in the Inscriptiones of the Canonical Gospels.” Pages 3-24 in Jesus, Gospel Tradition and Paul in the Context of Jewish and Greco-Roman Antiquity. WUNT 303. Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013.

Barton, John. Holy Writings, Sacred Text: The Canon in Early Christianity. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1997.

Barton, John. How the Bible Came to Be. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1997.

Bauckham, Richard. Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony. Second Edition. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006.

Bauckham, Richard. “Is There Patristic Counter-Evidence? A Response to Margaret Mitchell.” Pages 68-110 in The Audience of the Gospels: The Original Function of the Gospels in Early Christianity. Edited by Edward W. Klink III. LNTS 353. London: T&T Clark, 2010.

Bruce, F. F. The Canon of Scripture. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1988.

Bellinzoni, A. J. The Sayings of Jesus in the Writings of Justin Martyr. Leiden: Brill, 1967.

Biblia Patristica: Index des citations et allusions bibliques dans la litterature patristique. 6 vols. Paris: CNRS Editions, 1975–1995.

Campenhausen, Hans von. The Formation of the Christian Bible. Translated by J. A. Baker. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1972.

Carlson, Stephen C. “Clement of Alexandria on the ‘Order’ of the Gospels.” New Testament Studies 47 (2001): 118–25.

Chapman, John. “St. Irenaeus on the Date of the Gospels.” Journal of Theological Studies 6 (1905): 563–69.

Cosaert, C. P. The Text of the Gospels in Clement of Alexandria. Atlanta:
Society of Biblical Literature, 2008.

Furey, Constance M et al. The Encyclopaedia of the Bible and its Reception. De Gruyter, 2010.

Gallagher, Edmon L. and John D. Meade. The Biblical Canon Lists from Early Christianity. New York: Oxford, 2018.

Gamble, Harry Y. The New Testament Canon: Its Making and Meaning. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985.

Gathercole, Simon. “The Earliest Manuscript Title of Matthew’s Gospel (BnF Suppl. gr. 1120 ii 3 / P4).” Novum Testamentum 54 (2012) 209-235.

Gathercole, Simon. “The Titles of the Gospels in the Earliest New Testament Manuscripts.” Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 104 (2013): 33–76.

Gathercole, Simon. “Alleged Anonymity of the Canonical Gospels.” The Journal of Theological Studies 69.2 (2018): 447-476.

Gregory, Andrew, and Christopher M. Tuckett, editors. The Reception of the New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Gregory, Andrew, and Christopher M. Tuckett, editors. Trajectories through the New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Gundry, Robert. “ΕΥΑΓΓΕΛΙΟΝ: How Soon a Book?” Journal of Biblical Literature 115 (1996): 321-325.

Harnack, Adolf von. The Origin of the New Testament Canon and the Most Important Consequences of the New Creation. Second Edition. London: Williams and Norgate, 1925.

Heckel, Theo K. Vom Evangelium des Markus zum viergestaltigen Evangelium. WUNT 120; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1999.

Hengel, Martin. The Four Gospels and the One Gospel of Jesus Christ. Translated by John Bowden; London: SCM, 2000.

Hill, Charles E. and Michael J. Kruger, editors. The Early Text of the New Testament. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.

Keith, Chris. The Gospels as Manuscript: An Early History of the Jesus Tradition as Material Artifact. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020.

Kelhoffer, James A. “‘How Soon a Book’ Revisited: ΕΥΑΓΓΕΛΙΟΝ as a Reference to ‘Gospel’ Materials in the First Half of the Second Century.” Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 95 (2004): 1-34.

Koester, Helmut. Synoptische Überlieferung bei den apostolischen Vätern. TU 65. Berlin: Akedemie-Verlag, 1957.

Koester, Helmut. Ancient Christian Gospels: Their History and Development. London: SCM, 1990.

Larsen, Matthew D. C. Gospels Before the Book. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.

Lightfoot, Joseph Barber. Essays on the Work Entitled Supernatural Religion: Reprinted from the Contemporary Review. London: Macmillan, 1893.

Lohse, Eduard. The Formation of the New Testament. Nashville: Abingdon, 1981.

McDonald, Lee Martin. The Biblical Canon: Its Origin, Transmission, and Authority. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2011.

McDonald, Lee Martin. The Formation of the Biblical Canon: The New Testament, Its Authority and Canonicity. Volume 2. London: Bloomsbury T & T Clark, 2017.

McDonald, Lee Martin, and James A. Sanders, editors. The Canon Debate. Peabody: Hendrickson, 2002.

Metzger, Bruce M. The Canon of the New Testament: its Origin, Development, and Significance. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987.

Miller, John W. The Origins of the Bible: Rethinking Canon History. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2000.

Mitchell, Margaret. “Patristic Counter-Evidence to the Claim that ‘The Gospels were Written for all Christians.’” New Testament Studies 51
(2005): 36–79.

Orchard, John Bernard, and Harold Riley. The Order of the Synoptics: Why Three Synoptic Gospels? Macon: Mercer University Press, 1987.

Petersen, Silke. “Die Evangelienüberschriften und die Entstehung des neutestamentlichen Kanons.” Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 97 (2006): 250-274.

Reed, Annette Yoskiko. “ΕΥΑΓΓΕΛΙΟΝ: Orality, Textuality and the Christian Truth in Irenaeus’ Adversus Haereses.” Vigiliae Christianae 56 (2002): 11-46.

Regul, Jürgen. Die antimarcionitishchen Evangelienprologe. Vetus Latina 6; Freiburg: Herder, 1969.

Rodriguez, Jacob. Combining Gospels in Early Christianity: The One, the Many, and the Fourfold. Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2023.

Skeat, T.C. “Irenaeus and the Four-Gospel Canon.” Novum Testamentum 34 (1992): 194–99.

Stanton, Graham. Jesus and Gospel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Trobisch, David. The First Edition of the New Testament. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Tuckett, Christopher. Nag Hammadi and the Gospel Tradition: Synoptic Tradition in the Nag Hammadi Library. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1986.

Wasserman, Tommy and Jennifer Knust. To Cast the First Stone: The Transmission of a Gospel Story. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019.

Watson, Francis. Gospel Writing: A Canonical Perspective. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2013.

Watson, Francis. The Fourfold Gospel: A Theological Reading of the New Testament Portraits of Jesus. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2016.

Wenham, John. Redating Matthew, Mark and Luke: A Fresh Assault on the Synoptic Problem. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1991.

Westcott, B. F. A General Survey of the History of the Canon of the New Testament. London: MacMillan, 1855.

Young, Stephen E. Jesus Tradition in the Apostolic Fathers: Their Explicit Appeals to the Words of Jesus in Light of Orality Studies. WUNT 2.311. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011.

Zahn, Theodor. Geschichte des neutestamentlichen Kanon. 2 volumes. Erlangen: Deichert, 1888-1892.

Matthew

Alison, Dale C. “Matthew and the History of Its Interpretation.” Expository Times 120.1 (2008): 1-7.

Becker, Eve-Marie and Anders Runesson. Mark and Matthew II: Comparative Readings: Reception History, Cultural Hermeneutics, and Theology. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013.

Boxall, Ian. Matthew through the Centuries. Wiley Blackwell Bible Commentaries. Hoboken: Wiley, 2019.

Edwards, J. Christopher. The Ransom Logion in Mark and Matthew: Its Reception and Its Significance for the Study of the Gospels. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2012.

Köhler, Wolf-Dietrich. Die Rezeption des Matthäusevangeliums in der Zeit vor Irenäus. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1987.

Luz, Ulrich. Matthew. 3 Volumes. Translated by J.E. Crouch. Hermeneia. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001-2007.

Manlio Simonetti, Matthew 1-13. ACCS New Testament 1a; Downer’s Grove: IVP, 2001.

Manlio, Simonetti. Matthew 14-28. ACCS New Testament 1a; Downer’s Grove: IVP, 2002.

Massaux, Édouard. The Influence of the Gospel of Saint Matthew on Christian Literature before St. Irenaeus. 3 volumes. Translated by Norman J. Belval and Suzanne Hechte. Edited by Arthur J. Bellinzoni. Macon: Mercer University Press, 1990.

Metzdorf, Justina. Das Matthäusevangelium: Kapitel 19-21. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2017.

Nicholls, Rachel. Walking on the Water: Reading Mt. 14:22-33 in the Light of Its Wirkungsgeschichte. Biblical Interpretation Series 90. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2008.

Williams, D. H. Editor. Matthew Interpreted by Early Christian and Medieval Commentators. The Church’s Bible. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2018.

Mark

Black, C. Clifton. Mark: Images of an Apostolic Interpreter. 2nd ed. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001.

Braun, Willi. “The First Shall be Last: The Gospel of Mark after the First Century.” Pages 41-57 in Chasing Down Religion: In the Sights of History and Cognitive Sciences Essays in Honour of Luther H. Martin. Edited by Panavotis Pachis and Donald Wiebe. Thessaloniki: Barbounakis, 2010.

Braun, Willi. , “Christian Origins and the Gospel of Mark.” Pages 153-175 in Method and Theory in the Study of Religion: Working Papers from Hannover. Edited by Steffen Führding. Leiden: Brill, 2017.

Dewey, Joanna. “The Survival of Mark: A Really Good Story?” Journal of Biblical Literature 123 (2004): 495–507.

Furlong, Dean. The John also Called Mark: Reception and Transformation of Early Christian Tradition. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2020.

Joynes, Christine E. “The Sound of Silence: Interpreting Mark 16:1-8 through the Centuries.” Interpretation 65 (2011): 18–29.

Joynes, Christine E. Mark through the Centuries. Blackwell Bible Commentaries. Chicester: John Whiley and Sons, 2015.

Kealy, Seán P. Mark’s Gospel: A History of Its Interpretation. New York; Ramsey: Paulist Press, 1982.

Kealy, Seán P. A History of the Interpretation of the Gospel of Mark: Volume 1 Through the Nineteenth Century and Volume 2 The Twentieth Century. Lewiston – Queenston – Lampeter, Edwin Mellen Press, 2007.

Kok, Michael J. The Gospel on the Margins: The Reception of Mark in the Second Century. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2015.

Neirynck, F. “The Apocryphal Gospels and the Gospel of Mark.” Pages 123-75 in New Testament in Early Christianity/La reception des écrits néotestamentaires dans le christianisme primitif. Edited by Jean-Marie Sevrin. BETL 86. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1989.

North, J. L. “MARKOS HO KOLOBODAKTYLOS: Hippolytus, Elenchus, VII.30.” Journal of Theological Studies 29 (1977): 498–507.

Oden, Thomas C., and Christopher A. Hall. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament II (Mark). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1998.

Oden, Thomas C. The African Memory of Mark: Reassessing Early Church Tradition. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2011.

Schildgen, Brenda Deen. Power and Prejudice: The Reception of the Gospel of Mark. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1999.

Verheyden, Joseph. “The Reception History of the Gospel of Mark in the Early Church.” Pages 395-430 in Reading the Gospel of Mark in the Twenty-First Century. Edited by Geert Van Oyen. BETL 301; Leuven: Peeters, 2019.

Yadin-Israel, Azzan. “‘For Mark was Peter’s Tanna’: Tradition and Transmission in Papias and the Early Rabbis.” Journal of Early Christian Studies 23:3 (2015): 337-362.

Luke (and Acts)

BeDuhn, Jason. The First New Testament: Marcion’s Scriptural Canon. Oregon: Polebridge, 2013.

BeDuhn, Jason D. “The Myth of Marcion as Redactor: The Evidence of ‘Marcion’s’ Gospel against an Assumed Marcionite Redaction.” Annali di storia dell‘esegesi 29.1 (2012): 21-48.

Bovon, François. “The Reception and Use of the Gospel of Luke in the Second Century.” Pages 289-306 in New Testament and Christian Apocrypha: Collected Essays II. Edited by Glenn E. Snyder. WUNT 237. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009.

Dupertuis, Ruben R. and Todd C. Penner. Editors. Engaging Early Christian History: Reading Acts in the Second Century. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2013.

Just Jr., Arthur. Luke: Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture New Testament III. Downers Grove: IVP, 2003.

Gregory, Andrew. The Reception of Luke and Acts in the Period before Irenaeus. WUNT 2.169. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003.

Gregory, “Looking for Luke in the Second Century: A Dialogue with François Bovon.” Pages 401-415 in Reading Luke: Interpretation, Reflection, Formation (ed. Craig G. Bartholomew, Joel B. Green, and Anthony C. Thiselton; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005.

Harnack, Adolf Von. Marcion: Das Evangelium vom fremden Gott. Eine Monographie zur Geschichte der Grundlegung der katholischen Kirche. 2nd edition. TU 45. Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1924. (English Translation: Marcion: The Gospel of the Alien God. Durham: Labyrinth, 1989).

Hays, Christopher M. “Marcion vs. Luke: A Response to the Plädoyer of Matthias Klinghardt.” Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 99 (2008): 213-232.

Hoffman, R. Joseph. Marcion: On the Restitution of Christianity: An Essay on the Development of Radical Paulinist Theology in the Second Century. Chicago: Scholars Press, 1984.

Klinghardt, Matthias. “Markion vs. Lukas: Plädoyer für die Wiederaufnahme eines alten Falles.” New Testament Studies 52 (2006): 484-513.

Klinghardt, Matthias. “The Marcionite Gospel and the Synoptic Problem: A New Suggestion.” Novum Testamentum 50 (2008): 1-27.

Klinghardt, Matthias. Das älteste Evangelium und die Entstehung der kanonischen Evangelien. 2 volumes. TANZ 60. Tübingen: Francke, 2015.

Lieu, Judith. “Marcion and the Synoptic Problem” in New Studies in the Synoptic Problem. Edited by P. Foster, A. Gregory, J. S. Kloppenborg, J. Verheyden. BETL 279; Leuven: Peeters, 2011, 731-51.

Lieu, Judith. Marcion and the Making of a Heretic: God and Scripture in the Second Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015)

Knox, John. Marcion and the New Testament. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1942.

Matthews, Shelly. “Does Dating Luke-Acts into the Second Century Affect the Q Hypothesis?” Pages 253-264 in Gospel Interpretation and the Q-Hypothesis. Edited by Mogens Müller and Heike Omerzu. LNTS 573. London: T&T Clark, 2018.

Moll, Sebastian. The Arch-Heretic Marcion. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010.

Roth, Dieter T. The Text of Marcion’s Gospel. Leiden: Brill, 2015.

Roth, Dieter T. “Marcion’s Gospel and the History of Early Christianity: The Devil is in the (Reconstructed) Details.” Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum 21.1 (2017): 25-40.

Roth, Dieter T. “Marcion’s Gospel and the Synoptic Problem in Recent Scholarship.” Pages in Gospel Interpretation and the Q-Hypothesis. Edited by Mogens Müller and Heike Omerzu. LNTS 573. London: T&T Clark, 2018.

Smith, Daniel A. “Marcion’s Gospel and the Resurrected Jesus of Canonical Luke 24.” Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum 21.1 (2017): 41–62.

Smith, Daniel A. “The Sayings Gospel Q in Marcion’s Edition of Luke.” Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses 94.3 (2018): 481-503.

Smith, Daniel A. “Marcion’s Gospel and the Synoptics: Proposals and Problems.” Pages 129-173 in Gospels and Gospel Traditions in the Second Century: Experiments in Reception. Edited by Jens Schröter et al. BZNW 235. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2018.

Tsutsui, Kenji. “Das Evangelium Marcions: Ein neuer. Versuch der Textrekonstruktion.” Annual of the Japanese Biblical Institute 18 (1992): 67–132.

Tyson, Joseph B. Marcion and Luke-Acts: A Defining Struggle. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2006.

Vincent, Markus. Christ’s Resurrection in Early Christianity and the Making of the New Testament. Farnham: Ashgate, 2011.

Vincent, Markus. Marcion and the Dating of the Synoptic Gospels. Studia Patristica Supplement 2, Louven: Peters, 2014.

Vinzent, Markus. “Marcion’s Gospel and the Beginnings of Early Christianity.” Annali di storia dell’esegesi 32.1 (2015): 55-87.

John

Batovici, Dan. “The Second Century Reception of John: A Survey of Methodologies.” Currents in Biblical Research 10 (2012): 396–409.

Bauckham, Richard. The Testimony of the Beloved Disciple: Narrative, History, and Theology in the Gospel of John. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007.

Braun, F. M. Jean le Théologien et son Évangile dans l’Église Ancienne. Paris: Gabalda, 1959.

Brown, Raymond. The Community of the Beloved Disciple. London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1979.

Culpepper, R. Alan. John, the Son of Zebedee: The Life of a Legend. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2000.

DeConick, April D. “Why are the Heavens Closed? The Johannine Revelation of the Father in the Catholic-Gnostic Debate.” Pages 147-79 in John’s Gospel and Intimations of Apocalyptic. Edited by Catrin H. Williams and Christopher Rowland. London: T. & T. Clark, 2013.

DeConick, April D. . “Who is hiding in the Gospel of John? Reconceptualizing Johannine theology and the roots of Gnosticism.” Pages 13-29 in Histories of the Hidden God: Concealment and Revelation in Western Gnostic, Esoteric, and Mystical Traditions. Edited by April DeConick and Grant Adamson.  Gnostica Series. Durham: Acumen, 2013.

Elowsky, Joel C., editor. John 1-10. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture New Testament IVa. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2006.

Furlong, Dean. The Identity of John the Evangelist: Revision and Reinterpretation in Early Christian Sources. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2020.

Hengel, Martin. The Johannine Question. Translated by J. Bowden. London: SCM, 1989.

Hengel, Martin. Die Johanneische Frage: Ein Lösungsversuch mit einem Beitrag zur Apokalypse von Jörg Frey. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1993.

Hill, Charles E. The Johannine Corpus in the Early Church. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Hillmer, Melvyn Raymond. “The Gospel of John in the Second Century.” ThD diss., Harvard University, 1966

Keefer, Kyle. The Branches of the Gospel of John: The Reception of the Fourth Gospel in the Early Church. Library of New Testament Studies. London: Bloomsbury T. & T. Clark, 2006.

Kok, Michael J. The Beloved Apostle? The Transformation of the Apostle John into the Fourth Evangelist. Eugene: Cascade, 2017.

Manor, T. Scott. Epiphanius’s Alogi in Context: A Reassessment of Early Ecclesiastical Opposition to the Johannine Corpus. Leiden: Brill, 2016.

Nagel, Titus. Die Rezeption des Johannesevangeliums im 2. Jahrhundert: Studien zur vorirenäischen Auslegung des vierten Evangeliums in christlicher und christlich-gnostischer Literatur. Arbeiten zur Bibel und ihrer Geschichte 2. Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2000.

Pagels, Elaine H. The Johannine Gospel in Gnostic Exegesis: Heracleon’s Commentary on John. SBLMS 17. Nashville: Abingdon, 1973.

Pollard, T. E. Johannine Christology and the Early Church. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970.

Rasimus, Tuomas, editor. The Legacy of John: Second-Century Reception of the Fourth Gospel. Leiden: Brill, 2010.

Sanders, J. N. The Fourth Gospel in the Early Church: Its Origin and Influence on Christian Theology up to Irenaeus. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1943.

Smith, Joseph Daniel. “Gaius and the Controversy over the Johannine Literature.” PhD diss., Yale University, 1979.

Stewart, Bryan A. and Michael A. Thomas. John Interpreted by Early Christian and Medieval Commentators. The Church’s Bible. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2018.

Wiles, Maurice F. The Spiritual Gospel: The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel in the Early Church. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960.

Zelyck, Lorne Robert. John Among the Other Gospels: The Reception of the Fourth Gospel in the Extra-Canonical Gospels. WUNT II 347. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013.

I have just finished teaching for the semester, so I am just in the final stretch of marking before the summer break. However, I am looking forward to teaching the introductory unit “Jesus and the Gospels”, the advanced exegetical unit “General Epistles” (focusing on 1 Peter and 1 John), and New Testament Greek in semester 1. I will also run a few tutorials on biblical hermeneutics and am available to supervise graduate research projects. In semester 2, I will be teaching the introductory unit “Early New Testament Church” (i.e. Acts to Revelation), the advanced exegetical unit “Epistle to the Hebrews,” a seminar unit on “New Testament Christology,” and the second half of “New Testament Greek.” However, hopefully I will be able to complete some writing between now and the next semester and will see some of you at the online Society of Biblical Literature meeting.