was so strong that they too took on the designation with κατά and the accusative—against the original meaning. It does not tell against this considerable age of the titles of the Gospels that the earliest references to the Gospels as writings, in the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles’41 and so-called II Clement, from the first decades of the second century, simply quote ‘the Gospel’ in the singular without the mention of an author, e.g. in the formula, ‘the Lord says in the Gospel’.42 This singular