So ...

[Rudolph Hucker]

From a thread on CF, I am told that John was an eye witness, which I do not believe.

Which was the first gospel written? (I thought Mark)

When was it written? (After 70 AD?)

Which, if any, were eye-witnesses?

Why do Palestinians have names like Matthew, Mark etc?

[Minimalist]

Rudy...you dirty old dog....how the hell are you?

[Rudolph Hucker]

Rudy...you dirty old dog....how the hell are you?

Never better ole bean, thanks - and you?

(BTW, met our mutual chum IRL a few weeks ago - what a pleasant fellow he is)

[Drich]

I almost missed this one.

From a thread on CF, I am told that John was an eye witness, which I do not believe.

Which was the first gospel written? (I thought Mark)

There is an arguement for Luke. As The Acts of the Apstoles was written between 62 and 70 AD (some say even eariler if you take into consideration the interactions of some of the deciples/apstoles who died earily in church history that were included in his writtings, but does not mention their deaths, along with the major events Luke omits like paul's death in the mid 60's)

When was it written? (After 70 AD?)

The book of luke was written well before the book of acts. some speculate maybe even 10 years while other say it may have only been a few years. We know years because at the time of gospel of Luke, Luke was a servant or slave to theolopis, and in Acts he works for Paul.

Which, if any, were eye-witnesses?

John, and Matthew were apstoles. Mark was Peter's Deciple/Scribe as he was a common fisherman and would not have know how to read or write himself. So mark's gospel is the gospel of peter.
Luke was a deciple of Paul, and which means his Gospel would have been Paul's account.

Why do Palestinians have names like Matthew, Mark etc?

Translations of their orginal names. they went from their orginal forms to sometimes greek, then latin then english.
Mattija or sometimes refered to as Levi, then to maththaios then Matthew-levi in the english

Markous in the greek, Marcus in the latin, and mark in english

Lucanus in the latin then lucas then luke.

loannes in the hebrew, but when pronounce is kinds sounds like Yee-on-nas. In the english the 'nas' was droped and you has a root that sounds similar to john.

So like the borge assimlation machine all english speaking cultures are, 'we' made all of those names our own...
That is why all the 'good guys' got white names and all the bad guys kept their not white names.

[Minimalist]

I still chat with him on his "board" ( its mainly just the two of us.) He hasn't changed much.

Drippy, here, will remind you of him quite a bit.

[truthBtold]

Unknown authors.. they just attached names to them.. kinda like the back door to a onezeee!!

[Minimalist]

Lucanus in the latin then lucas then luke.

Actually the name "Lucius" as a Roman praenomen dates well back to the pre-Republican period in Rome. As does "Marcus."

The question remains....how would Galilean fishermen have ended up with Roman names in the early first century when Galilee was still ruled by its own king?