Critics have argued that since Matthew refers to himself in third person here, he cannot be the author of the gospel:
…“As Jesus passed on from there he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax office; and he said to him, "Follow me".
Neither Muhammad (pbuh) nor Jesus wrote down a scripture, though many people seem to hold that imaginary idea. Their scriptures were first written down by their companions after their death.…
This objection is built on a totally false understanding of what ‘God’s Word’ (كلمةﷲ) is. …
The early church, many of whom know Matthew, Mark, Luke and John personally, was unanimous that the four Gospels were written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Matthew and John were both among Jesus’ twelve disciples, Mark got his account from the apostle Peter (also one of the twelve), and Luke was an active member of the first generation church.…
Certain critics of the Gospels allege that a document called the “Gospel of Barnabas” is the original Gospel of Jesus, claiming that Christians had deliberately hidden it until it popped up in the 18th century. While there are hundreds of early manuscripts of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, there are absolutely no manuscript copies of the Gospel of Barnabas until one thousand five hundred years after Jesus.…
There are a few “gospels” which were composed much later than Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and rejected by the early Christian community.…