The Synoptic Problem and its Significance

for Understanding Jesus

The Synoptic Problem is the Key to Understanding the Central Issue of New Testament Studies and of Early Christian Studies in General: The Problem of the Historical Jesus. Who was Jesus? What did he Say? What did he Do? What was he trying to accomplish? It seems ironic to have to address such questions two millenia after Jesus lived, but recent discoveries of ancient evidence and new methods of interpreting the sources of early Christianity necessitate and make possible a complete reevaluation of the Jesus movement from the historical perspective.

Read Carefully:

• What to Expect, p. 92

• The Methodologies that will be applied to the documents we will study, pp. 92-93

Major Theme:

The Synoptic Problem, pp. 93-98;
and the Solution generally accepted by the majority of scholars,
the "Four-Source Hypothesis" (alternatively the "Two-Source Hypothesis")

Focus on:

• The Priority of Mark, pp. 94-96

  Where Matt, Mark, and Luke share the same NARRATIVE material,
  Matthew and Luke are copying Mark
   

  • Patterns of Agreement, pp. 94-95

    Mark is almost always in the Majority,
        sometimes agreeing with Matt against Luke,
        sometimes agreeing with Luke against Matt;
    Matt/Luke rarely agree with each other against Mark
        and when they do, they do so in minor ways
     

  • Sequence of Narrative, p. 95

    When Matt/Luke preserve their stories in the same sequence,
        it is almost always with stories found also in Mark;
    But when Matt/Luke preserve sayings material that is not in Mark,
        these materials are almost always located in different places in their texts,
        and almost never in the same corresponding place
     

  • Characteristics of the Changes, pp. 95-96

    Mark's style of Greek is often awkward,
        unpleasing aesthetically,
        unusual vocabulary and phraseology

    Matt/Luke systematically improve Mark's Greek;

    But more significantly,
    Matt/Luke regularly make doctrinal adjustments to Mark
        that change the character of Mark's Jesus
     

  • Study this parallel presentation of the Synoptic Baptism stories;
        answer the questions posed at the top of the page
    
    Consider what changes in the person of Jesus are brought about
        by the manipulations of the tradition in Matthew and Luke:
     

    • What was it about John's baptism
      that caused such turmoil among the later gospel writers
      that they had to change their own baptism stories to fix the problem?
       

    • Why the confusion among the gospels over whether John knew Jesus?

   

• The Q Source, pp. 96-98

  Where Matthew and Luke share the same SAYINGS material
      And this SAYINGS material is often verbatim,
      And there is no parallel material in Mark,
  Matthew and Luke both must have used
      a now lost, written document designated as Q(uelle)

Q may have been the earliest written collection of Jesus' words,
    and was incorporated/interwoven into Matthew and Luke;

If so, Q may provide us with our best opportunity
    for understanding the Historical Jesus . . .

• Study this parallel presentation of some of the Q materials
      from Matt's Sermon on the Mount and Luke's Sermon on the Plain;

Consider why the Jesus portrayed in Q may not have been appropriate
    for the theological purposes of the post-apostolic church and

Speculate on why this hypothetical document,
    potentially the closest we can get to the real historical Jesus,
    disappeared . . .

• The M and L Sources, p. 98

  Matthew and Luke, individually and independently of each other,
      preserve a number of stories (especially the Nativity traditions),
      that come from neither Mark nor Q.

  This material must have come from other, now lost, external sources,
      which predate the Gospels and may contain earlier traditions.
   

Learn the Key Terms on p. 99 with special reference to their original context in the chapter