The first church father to name Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as the four Gospels in the New Testament is Irenaeus, the bishop of Lyons in Gaul (i.e., the ancient forerunner of Lyon, France), in his five-volume work, “Against Heresies” in 180 CE.   He spent significant time in Rome itself before his appointment in Gaul, and he considered the Roman church to be the center of Christendom at his time, but there are no Roman authors before him who say anything about it.  The important teacher / philosopher Justin (who acquired the epithet “Martyr”), from whom we have three surviving writings about Jesus, Scripture, and the truth of Christianity, quotes the Gospels but never indicates who wrote them.

There is another (apparent) witness

Unlock 4,000+ Articles Like This!

Get access to Dr. Ehrman's library of 4,000+ articles plus five new articles per week about the New Testament and early Christianity. It costs as little as $2.99/mth and every cent goes to charity!

Learn More!