This suggests that these two evangelists used another source that Mark did not have access to. Certain stories and sayings about Jesus, as well as some sayings of Jesus himself, were probably held dear by the early Christian communities. Despite the likeness among the synoptics, comparing them can feel like comparing apples and oranges. Though each gospel was written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, each is unique and written by a different author who had his own specific sources and who reflected theologically on the story of Jesus as he knew it and lived it.
Each author wrote in a given year, for a unique audience, and with a specific message in mind. Each gospel complements the others with differences and similarities, giving us a better and more complete understanding of who Jesus the Christ was and is for us today. Photo by Kiwihug on Unsplash.
Your memory is not faulty. Tags Glad You Asked Scripture. Yet these three gospels are remarkably similar. How did that happen? The quote from Jesus is identical in all three passages, and the text leading up to the quote has slightly different wording, but basically says the same thing.
Matthew adds that people wanted Jesus to pray for the children. And the gospels are full of passages like these. To answer the synoptic problem, scholars mostly have to work from the gospels themselves. Did the synoptic gospel writers use each other as sources? If we decide that one or more of the gospels was a source for the others, this leads us to a more complicated question:.
If so, which synoptic gospel was written first and which depended on the others? We have to use literary clues to identify which gospel or gospels seem to exert the greatest influence on the others. While some scholars believe each of the gospels was written completely independently of the others, several highly unlikely coincidences make that pretty hard to accept. Matthew, Mark, and Luke contain entire sentences that are the same word for word, even in narrative material.
Towards the beginning of Jesus' ministry, the gospels all present the following events in the same order:. So now we have much of the same material worded the same way and appearing in the same order.
The writers of the synoptic gospels frequently follow the same patterns in their narratives, pausing for parenthetical statements in the same places. Take a look at where the writer breaks up Jesus' quote which happens to be a word-for-word quotation :. So is this a coincidence? Not likely. If a writer has details to add to the story, they could choose any number of places to add that information. The chances that all three writers would happen to choose the same locations to add the same details—without using one of the other writers as a model—are pretty small.
At some point you have to ask, how many coincidences does it take to equal proof? When the same material is shared with the same words, in the same order, with the same side comments, and the same altered quotes, most scholars agree: one of these gospels was a source for the others—so which is it?
The first solution to the synoptic problem was proposed more than a millennium ago, when St. Take the online course. It seems that Augustine first identified and focused on the apparent relationship between the synoptic gospels. In the video at the top of this post, Dr. One of the two major solutions to the synoptic problem is known as Matthean priority, which claims Matthew came first.
Unlike Augustine, modern proponents of Matthean priority believe that Luke used Matthew as a source, and then Mark used both, abbreviating them throughout his own gospel. Matthew and Luke also included unique material, and the sources for this material are designated M and L, respectively. The Synoptic Gospels are the primary source for historical information about Jesus.
Apocryphal gospels, as well as the canonical Gospel of John, differ greatly from the Synoptic Gospels. Sacred Text. We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe. If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly. Forgot your password?
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Term » Definition. Word in Definition. Princeton's WordNet 0. Freebase 2. The Nuttall Encyclopedia 4. Matched Categories Sacred Text. Alex US English. David US English. Mark US English.
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