+ Linguists have confirmed the ancient tradition that Matthew wrote in Hebrew.
+ In the early records the Gospel according to Matthew is always listed first.
+ Clement of Alexandria, stated that Luke wrote before Mark, so producing the chronological sequence of Matthew-Luke-Mark-John. The Church Fathers were familiar with and used the same order.
+ When Jerome made a fresh translation of the New Testament in the fourth century, he chose to adopt the Matthew-Mark-Luke-John sequence. This is why we find this order in our bibles today.
+ A growing number of modern literary analysists recognize that Mark borrowed from Matthew and Luke alternately, so confirming the historical evidence that Mark wrote third.
+ Both the historical and literary evidence shows that Matthew wrote for the Jews and that Luke wrote for the Gentiles.
+ Historical evidence and modern literary evidence, both point to Peter giving a series of talks during which he alternately quoted from both Gospels while adding reminiscences of his own. In this way he was authorising the work of Luke (a non-eyewitness Apostle).+ The words of Peter, as recorded by Mark in shorthand, were distributed to those who made requests. This explains the apparent `poor Greek` of Mark. His Gospel was not composed in literary Greek, but was an unedited verbatim record of the spoken words of Peter, for whom Greek was not his native tongue.
+ By Peter supporting distribution of Mark`s transcript, he was granting it authorisation as an official Gospel.
+ This vindication of the reliability of the historical records makes them a reliable and firm authority for accepting that John the Apostle wrote the fourth Gospel.
+ The Clementine Tradition brings the ancient historical records and the latest literary analysis together in perfect agreement.
**THE CHURCH**
+ Dei Verbum, a Doctrinal Constitution of the Second Vatican Council, insists that eyewitness Apostles wrote two of the gospels.
+ The Markan priority theory, as normally understood, is in conflict with Dei Verbum.
+ The Clementine Tradition is in agreement with Dei Verbum.
+ Rome urges the use of both historical evidence and scientific literary analysis
+ The Holy See has issued many recent statements in which the historicity of the Gospels is accepted as a fact.
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