Except for Hebrews and 1 John (1), all the Letters of the New Testament have the writers’ names (or at least title-Elder in 2 and 3 John) attached to the documents. Of course, scholars still debate their authorship, since that’s what scholars do. Even Revelation comes with the name John firmly attached within the text as the writer.
The Gospels are another matter. They are written anonymously. Later apocryphal gospels, such as the Gospel of Peter, the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Philip, the Gospel of Nicodemus, and others, carry names with them, but they are almost certainly not the actual names of the writers. They appear to be there to lend credibility to their writings.
On the other hand, the canonical Gospels have no authors’ names within the text. We depend on early church traditions, along with internal, and often subtle clues, to get Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. As for John, we do have “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” but it never says that he was John, the son of Zebedee. Luke tells about his patron, Theophilus, but never identifies himself. Mark and Matthew give us no names and really no clues as to their names.
Why are they anonymous? Perhaps the anonymity of the Old Testament histories played a role (2). But I think something else is going on. Since our congregation has a series through Matthew, I’ll stick to him. If the early church tradition is correct, it is this former tax collector who authored the Gospel. Matthew was also known as Levi. It may be that, as did many Jews, he had two names. It may also be like Saul became known as Paul as his ministry focused on the Gentile world, Levi chose his other name, Matthew, to distinguish his apostleship from his tax collecting past. Yet, Matthew has no interest in autobiography. He is writing a Jesus story, not a Matthew story!
Of course, there are times when we should tell our stories, as Paul did when needed. But as disciples of Jesus, each of us would do well to say, “It’s about Jesus, it’s not about me.”
Tim Kelley
(1) In the case of the Letters of John; themes, vocabulary, and literary style connect them to the Gospel of John, and to a lesser degree to Revelation, where the name John is attached.
(2) See: https://ehrmanblog.org/why-are-the-gospels-anonymous/