You mean there couldn’t possibly be more then one person in the entire wold named Matthew? Deos this mean that my nephew actaully is the apostle Matthew, or that kid I sat next to in 3rd grade that ate paste, was he the apostle Matthew?
Sorry for butting in verga, but Matthew is believed to have been written, at least in part, by the disciple Matthew. Matthew wrote an Aramaic gospel around 50. The Greek gospel we have is probably partly that gospel, expanded with direct quotations from Mark.
Mark and Luke were the evangelists who were not of the 12. Both were companions of Paul. But Mark likely wrote with the authority of Peter, as he later became Peter’s secretary. That would explain why Matthew and Luke write about similar events in different language, but when Matthew cites Mark, he uses the exact same language; whoever translated the Aramaic gospel into the Greek gospel kept the unique portions of Matthew, but when Mark tells the same passage, he uses the exact same language as Mark.
That Mark is a condensation of Matthew is less likely. Certain portions of Mark are not contained in Matthew, but use a language which is consistent with the rest of Mark. The portions of Matthew which are not contained in Mark are very different in writing style, theme and scope from those that are. Also, Mark has fewer passages than Matthew, but some of those that it has are longer in Mark than in Matthew. Reading Mark’s baptism of Jesus, it seems unlikely that Mark has interjected the added material.