This paper considers Francis Watson’s claim that no internal criteria can be identified which drove the canonization of the four canonical gospels as opposed to other “apocryphal” gospels. After reviewing Watson’s reconstruction for gospel canonization, I suggest that the four canonical gospels have something in common which no canonical “competitor” possesses, namely a missionary ideology. This paper demonstrates the importance of the Gentile mission for each canonical gospel. Each gospel enshrined this purpose, however, in distinctive ways which disallows explaining this phenomenon as literary dependency. This missionary ideology is likely a result of sincere conviction on the part of each respective author, recognition of the mission as a result of the establishment of the new covenant, and historical context of the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. The missionary ideology is distinctive to the canonical gospels when compared with the apocryphal gospels. This is a factor which the four canonical gospels share in common with the other canonical documents. Likewise, this is suggestive for considering canon as a kind of feedback loop; as the canonical documents persuaded the church towards a Gentile mission, more Gentiles came into the church. This, in turn, made churches more likely to receive canonical documents which contain references to a Gentile mission.