How was Matthew's Gospel influential in the writing of the other Synoptic Gospels?

A:The Church Fathers of the second century noticed that, when laid side by side in the Greek language, they could see a great deal of common material in the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke). They was an obvious literary dependency, and they decided that Matthew's Gospel was first and that Mark and Luke were written from it. They might even have attributed this gospel to Matthew, on of the disciples of Jesus, for this very reason.

Modern scholars agree that there was a literary dependency but say that Mark's Gospel was actually the first New Testament gospel. They now realise that Matthew and Luke were copied from Mark.