Synoptic Gospels

1. A gospel is a story about Jesus
2. Key texts
   1. Mt. 16:18 (ecclesiology / the church)

      Annotations:

      • 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.
   2. Mk. 10:45 (atonement / for our sins)

      Annotations:

      • 45 For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’
   3. Lk. 10:22 (christology / the person of Jesus Christ)

      Annotations:

      • 22 All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.’
3. Matthew, Mark and Luke did not write a theology; they wrote Gospels

1. Luke makes reference to previous gospel writings in his preface
2. Mt & Mk use the same narration on apocalytic discourse - 'Let the reader understand' (Mt. 24.15//Mk 13.14), this something that would have been passed around in oral tradition
3. The wording and order is in close agreement across all 3 gospels
4. Evidence points to a literary tradition rather than purely oral

1. The study of the similarities and differences of the Synoptic Gospels in an attempt to explain their literary relationship.

1. 1. History
   1. Are they accurate?
   2. Which one is more reliable?
   3. The quest for the historical Jesus
   4. The development of early Christinaity
2. 2. Theology
   1. The differences on comparing parallel texts can stimulate theological reflection

      Annotations:

      • Eucharist - Matthew 26.27-28 / Mark 14.25-24 / Luke 22.20 / Corinthians 11.25
3. 3. Cultural factors
   1. Mainly focused on historical-critical work
   2. Little work has been done using contemporary methods so far
4. 4. The Puzzle
   1. Intellectually simulating/challenging

1. Matthew & Luke both used Mark's gospel as one of their sources
2. Before Mark, the gospel was transmitted as individual units (pericopae)
3. By separating the 'pearl' from the 'string', you can identify Mark's purposes
4. Matthew & Luke had access to a collection of sayings that differ from Mark (Q)
   1. Matthew - 5–7, 10, 13, 18, 24–25
   2. Luke - 9:51–18:14)
   3. A minority of scholars (Goodacre) dispute the existence of Q and believe Luke obtained the additional teaching from Matthew

1. Form criticism
   1. How were the individual units of tradition (parables, miracle stories, wisdom sayings etc.) transmitted?
      1. Assumed Mark brought together individual units (pericopae), as Mark's pericopae were only loosely linked together and form critics conclude they represented oral tradition.
         1. Focused on the needs of the early Church
2. Source criticism
   1. What sources were used by the Evangelists (Gospel writers) to construct their Gospels?
3. Redaction criticism
   1. What was the theology (or ideology) of the Gospel writers that led to their editing or redaction of the available sources?
      1. 1. Looks at the modifications they made
      2. 2. Looks at the whole gospel's structure (redacted and unredacted) - composition criticism
4. Literary criticism
   1. How does a Gospel affect a reader? In other words, how does it function as literature?

1. Pioneered by German scholar's (1950's-1960's)
2. Attempted to identify a change of emphasis of one of the sources
   1. i.e. Luke changed the apocalyptic view of Mark for a continuing church age.

1. Markan Priority
2. 'Q' (Quelle)
3. Matthew and Luke independently used two sources, Mark and an hypothetical source called Q.

1. Markan Priorty
2. Doubt the existence of 'Q'
3. Luke knows Mark & Matthew

1. Matthean Priorty
2. Mark comes third, using Matthew & Luke
3. Markan Posteriority

1. Found in all 3 gospels
2. Wording and order similar
3. Substantial agreements between Matt & Mk and Mk & Lk
4. Only minor agreement between Matt & Lk
5. Mk is the common element ('middle term')

1. Agreements between Matt & Lk, not Mk
2. Referred to as 'Q' material
3. Largely 'sayings', with near-verbatim agreement
4. The order of material is generally different between Matt & Lk

1. Known as 'M' material
2. Unique to Matthew's gospel
3. Some material is intimately connected with the Triple Tradition contexts in which it is embedded.
4. Some material is said to have a 'legendary' character.

1. Known as 'L' material
2. Some of the most famous parables

   Annotations:

   • the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, Dives and Lazarus, the Pharisee and the Publican, the Unjust Judge, the Friend at Midnight, the Rich Fool.
3. Material is similar to pericopae in Mark.

1. Mk is the common element
2. Agreements between Mt & Mk and Mk & Lk
3. Always appears in Markan order

Annotations:

• Mustard Seed - Matthew 13.31-32 Mark 4.30-32 Luke 13.18-19

1. Substantial agreement between Matthew and Luke against Mark.
2. Wording and order simiilar
3. Pericopae common to all 3 gospels

1. Mark would not have omitted the birth narratives or the sermon on the mount if he had known about them
2. Mark portrays a more 'human' Jesus, than Mt or Lk
   1. Healing techniques

      Annotations:

      • He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven he sighed and said to him 'Ephphatha", that is, 'Be opened" (Mk 7.33-34).
   2. Healing in secrecy - Jesus is mysterious

      Annotations:

      • And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man. and begged him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the village; and when he had spat on his eyes and laid his hands upon him, he asked him, "Do you see anything?" And he looked up and said, 'I see men; but they look like trees, walking'. Then again he laid his hands upon his eyes; and he looked intently and was restored, and saw everything clearly. And he sent him away to his home, saying, 'Do not even enter the village' (Mk 8.22-26).
   3. His power takes time and is limited

      Annotations:

      • 'And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands upon a few sick people and healed them' (Mk 6:5)
   4. Mt & Lk might not have wanted to give this impression

      Annotations:

      • Matthew - 'Jewish' Jesus Luke - Jesus to the gentiles (?)
   5. Although Mk claims Jesus was the Messiah, which is understood in line with a major stress on his suffering and death.

      Annotations:

      • Mark might have been influenced by Paul's teaching on the suffering of the Messiah
3. Mark's gospel is the most colloquial, this makes sense if his source was oral tradition (?)
4. There is a lack of new material that you would expect if he was writing third
   1. Assumes he relied on literary material rather than oral
5. Some of the 'omitted' material would have been congenial to Mark's gospel. i.e. The Lord's Prayer
6. Dates
   1. Matthew & Luke seems to be aware of the events of 70 CE

      Annotations:

      • Matthew 23.37-39 Luke 13.34-35 Matthew 24.15; 21-22 Mark 13.14: 19-20 Luke 21.20-21: 23-24 Matthew 27.32 Mark 15.21 Luke 23.26
      1. Jerusalem was overrun by the Roman army after the Jewish War beginning in 66 CE
   2. All gospels known by mid-2nd century
   3. Mark makes a reference to 'the father of Alexander and Rufus' in Mk.15:21, meaning his readers know these children and are close to the events it reports. Mt & Lk (and their readers) are not aware of these children, and therefore omit
7. Editorial fatigue - Mt & Lk make charateristic changes to the early part of the pericopae, but lapse into the same wording as Mk in the latter parts.

   Annotations:

   • The Leper - (Matthew 8.1-4 Mark 1.40-45 Luke 5.12-16)  - crowds and healing in private. Death of John the Baptist - (Mk 6.14-29//Mt.14.1-12) - king/tetrarch, herod's grief. Paralytic - (Mk 2.1-12//Lk. 5.17-2) the house.
   1. In Mt/Lk, events/themes are mentioned later in the material that were not introduced at the beginning like they are in Mk

1. Mark omitted the pericopae because it was uncongenial to his message
2. Mark made explanatory additions to Mt & Lk's pericopae
3. Patristic evidence (external) - Early Christian writers stated belief that Mt was written first
   1. Iraneas (2nd century)
   2. Clement (placed Mk third), Origen, Augustine and Jerome (3rd-5th centuries)
   3. The Priority of Matthew was a natural consequence of the belief that his Gospel was the one directly written by an apostle.
      1. Concerned with 'who' rather then 'when'
   4. Although the earliest testimony (Papias) doesn't tell us either way