However, the language of Mark (which, like all the gospels, was written in Greek) was in a style inferior to that used by educated writers. The chances are therefore that he was not a sophisticated man, may not have been directly linked with the apostles and, worse, may have been credulous and unreliable. Given that there is a gap of between fifty and eighty years between Jesus’ death and the writing of the later gospels, their accuracy must be called into question. Of the gospels, only one, John, refers to an author: ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved.’78
