Reply #6: It's a practical certainty that of the canonicals, Mark is first. But: [View All]

[dimbear]

it's likely that the first ever gospel is one no one has heard tell of since the first century. There were many, many gospels circulating about, including the very oldest one we have the smallest scrap of, which is otherwise completely unknown. Check the Egerton papyri.

And like it says upthread, GThom may be very old, altho that's not generally accepted. Other strong comers: Gospel of the Ebionites, Gospel of the Nazoreans, the supposed Aramaic original behind Matthew, and so on, all lost. We don't even know if that's three things or one, but they're mentioned in antiquity.

Then there are the completely hypothetical ones: Gospel of Signs, Q, and so on. If there really was a Gospel of Signs, it might well have been the first.