...Article Critique “The Relationship between John and the Synoptic Gospels” Introduction The Journal article entitled “The Relationship between John and the Synoptic Gospels,” focuses on the relationship that John may have had access to the synoptic gospels when he wrote the book of John. The debate focuses on three theories about how the book of John was written, and how John is similar, yet uniquely different from the Synoptic Gospels, of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The journal compares the writing style and the scripture context in comparisons and differences between the synoptic gospels and the book of John. Brief Summary The three distinct positions of the article focuses on, first “that John was literally dependent upon one or more of the synoptic gospels” (1). The second is “that John was literally independent of the synoptic gospels, but that similarities between them are due to use of a common synoptic tradition” (1). The third and final position is “that John was literally independent of the synoptic gospels, but was aware of them and their traditions.” (1). All of these literary theories help the reader to understand why the book of John is different, yet similar in many ways to the synoptic gospels, although it is not included as one of the synoptic gospels. “The term synoptic is derived from a combination of the Greek words συν (syn = together) and οψις (opsis = seeing) to indicate that the contents of these three Gospels can be viewed side-by-side, whether...
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...Solving the Synoptic Problem Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the four narrators for the Gospels. The Gospel “offers distinctive information about Jesus, his public ministry, death, Resurrection, and significance” (Mueller 80). Each of the four Gospels were written at different times, and without collaboration. Due to the differences of chronological order, the order in which events took place, vocabulary, the overall contents, and similarities the Synoptic Problem was created. The Synoptic problem refers to the discussion and the relationship between the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The main question that the Synoptic problem posses is what is the nature of the relationship between the three Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke, which was written first, and what sources were used in each of them? With the exception of John, the Gospels have many different similarities in the text, passages, and the specific arrangements of those passages. The reason for the Gospel written by John not being included in the synoptic problem is that there are very few agreements in the text compared to those of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. “The synoptic gospels are synoptic in that they share a majority of their information. Mark contains 93% shared information, Matthew 58% and Luke contains 41%. The Gospel of John in the only gospel that is not considered part of the synoptic gospels because it is 92% peculiar, or dissimilar in its structure and makeup” (Linderer 2). Although...
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...| The Synoptic Problem | Understanding the relationship between the synoptic Gospels | | The New Testament of the Bible begins with the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. These four books are a biography of the life Jesus Christ. Most want to views these books as photographs of the life and ministry of Christ, but they should really be viewed as portraits of Christ. A photograph takes a picture and shows you exactly what is there, while a portrait can add different perspectives on the same image. If four people each painted a picture of a sunset each painter would show the sunset from a different perspective (1). Each author of the books of the Gospels adds his own views into each book. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known as the synoptic Gospels. The word synoptic in Greek means “seeing together” this is appropriate for these books because of the common viewpoint. While John is known as the supplemental Gospel, and has very different characteristics from the other three books.(2) If we view the Gospels as a modern day biography we would want to see all the facts of Jesus's life and them all to be laid out in chronological order. The authors of the Gospels however were basing their versions of Jesus's life off of ancient biographies. These works were not written in chronological order, but were written with specific facts to show the significance of one's life. The way the Gospels were written was very understandable to the people of that time. (1) The...
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...Dvorak, James D. “The Relationship Between John and The Synoptic Gospels: The Person of Christ in Synoptic Theology.” Journal of Evangelical Society Jets 41:2 (June 1998): 201-203. Survey of Theology Marvin T. Roberts May 17, 2015 Contents Page Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………….1 Brief Summary…………………………………………………………………………………….1 Critical Interaction………………………… ………………………………..……………...…1-2 Conclusion…………...……………………………………………….…………………………2-3 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………………4 Introduction The paper of James D. Dvorak deals with the debates of the comparison between John and the synoptic gospels. Its provides information of the relationship of John to the synoptic gospels that has been a recurring problem, not only for two centuries of modern critical scholarship, but for Christian theology and exegesis over a much longer period. Brief Summary In the paper of James Dvorak he uses three (3) theories to discuss the relationship of John to synoptic gospels. Literary Dependence that is discussed to make claims that John was literarily dependent upon one or more of the synoptic. Literary Independence contends that John was not dependent on the Synoptics but that the similarities between the two are due to use of a common tradition. And there is Mediating View in which some scholars believe that there is a possibility fourth gospel can be adequately explained without...
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...LIBERTY UNIVERSITY THE SYNOPTIC PROBLEM A RESEARCH PAPER SUBMITTED TO DR. CAROL A. THOMAS IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COURST NBST 525 LIBERTY BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY BY LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA , 2013 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 EXPLORATION OF THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS........................................................................1 ORAL THEORY.............................................................................................................................2 THE TWO-SOURCE HYPOTHESIS.............................................................................................3 THE GREISBACH HYPOSTHESIS..............................................................................................4 THE FARRER-GOULDER HYPOTHESIS...................................................................................5 THE AUGUSTINE HYPOSTHESIS..............................................................................................6 DEFENSE OF THE SYNOPTIC PROBLEM................................................................................6 CONCLUSION...............................................................................................................................7 BIBLIOGRAPHY...........................................................................................................................9 INTRODUCTION At first, one reads the words “Synoptic Problem” and assumes the worst. The expression...
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...SEMINARY Synoptic Problem Submitted to Professor Laurie Schweinsberg., in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of the course NBST 510 New Testament Introduction by Jacqueline Goldston June 2, 2014 TABLE OF CONTENT INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………1 UNDERSTANDIN THE SYNOPTIC PROBLEM…………………………..2 SIMLARITIES BETWEEN THE GOSPELS………………………………..3 HISTORY OF THE SYNOPTIC PROBLEM………………………………..6 A PROPOSED SOLUTION TO THE SYNOPTIC PROBLEM……………..7 THE TWOFAVORED SOLUTIONS………………………………………..8 DEFENDING TWO GOSPELS HYPOTHESIS (GRIESBACH)…………..9 CONCLUSION …………………………………………………………….12 BIBLOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………13 1 INTRODUCTION The Synoptic problem can be a very difficult subject to understand at times. When you take a look around or start asking question of your bible scholars or even your casual readers of the Bible you find out people don’t even realize there is a Synoptic problem. There seems to be many different proposed solutions that will fix the problem. Some accepted and some of which has very little support at all. When you read you see that there are different scriptures in the bible that shows a level of agreement in the content of reading, and seems as if the authors have borrowed each other’s writings’ or used the same materials in research they had in common. However, even though they agree there are so many differences that are...
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...The Synoptic Problem The Gospels according to Matthew, Mark and Luke are so similar to each other that, in a sense, they view Jesus "with the same eye", in contrast to the very different picture of Jesus presented in the Fourth Gospel of John. Yet there are also many significant differences among the three Synoptic Gospels. The Synoptic Problem, in the normal sense is not really a problem, it refer to questions and possible explanation on the relationships between Matthew, Mark and Luke. The similarities between these three writers are so numerous and close, in the order of the materials they presented, the stories told, the sayings of Jesus, even using the exact wording of long stretches of text, that it is not sufficient to explain these similarities on the basis of oral traditions alone. There must be some literary dependence of one or more gospels upon another, meaning that someone copied from another person. Common material presented is not always in the same order, in the three gospels; and thus leaving the question of who wrote first and who copied from whom? There are three theories which have tried to explain the literary relationships between the synoptic gospels. These theories will be briefly looked at. The first theory held that the apostles had written down brief memorabilia which were later collected and arranged according to their particular type of genre. The problem with this view is that it fails to explain the overall arrangement of the synoptic gospels. [Schleiermacher...
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... The New Testament contains the four synoptic gospels that were written by different authors at different periods. It goes without saying that each author had a different view of Jesus and his life story, which makes it hard for a reader to understand the full context of the life of Jesus. The several differences in the gospels dispute one another and depict Jesus with several different characteristics; it shows how many different personal circumstances may have shaped the way each author wrote their own version of the gospels and can it can be concluded that that New Testament is contradictory due to those circumstances. It is has been said that Matthew was the first gospel written out of the synoptic gospels followed by Mark, and then Luke and lastly John. John and Matthew are the only two authors who witnessed the life of Jesus but strangely their depiction of Jesus couldn’t be anymore different from one another. It is strange that John and Matthew have completely different outlooks on what Jesus was like even though they both physically witnessed him, I think it takes away a sense of truth from the Bible. While writing their own gospels Mark and Luke both drew inspiration from Matthew in writing their own gospels so there is an underlying resemblance between the three. John on the other hand depicts Jesus way differently than the rest. John writes about Jesus as the self-proclaimed Son of God, within the first chapter of John, Jesus is already heard saying, “behold...
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...The synoptic problem The first three books of the New Testament which are Matthew, Mark and Luke are compared, and it is discovered that they look similar to one another in content and expression. As a result they a referred to as the synoptic gospels. The word “synoptic” basically means “to see together with a common view”. This raises the question of why they are similar to one another in these respects. This is known as the synoptic problem. The many similarities between the synoptic gospels have led some to wonder if the gospel authors had a common source, another written account of Christ’s birth, life, ministry, death, and resurrection from which they obtained the material for their gospels. Some argue that Matthew, Mark, and Luke are so similar that they must have used each other’s gospels, or another common source. This supposed “source” has been given the title “Q” from the German word “quell” which means “source.” Another problem is that there is no evidence for the “Q” document or even a portion or fragment which has been discovered. “Q” is just the invention of liberal scholars who deny the inspiration of the Bible and they believe it to be nothing more than a work of literature, subject to some criticism given to other works of literature. This in turn renders the source very much unreliable because there is also no evidence for a “Q” document biblically, theologically or historically. If there is no “Q” document, then why are they similar? It is possible that...
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...Liberty University THE SYNOPTIC PROBLEM A paper submitted to PROFESSOR MONTE SHANKS In partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the course NBST 510 Liberty Theological seminary By Wilbert L. Bracey Lynchburg, Virginia February 1, 2014 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1 The Synoptic Problem-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2 Markan Priority---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3 Q Hypothesis------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4 L and M------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------6 Two Gospel Hypothesis-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------7 Conclusion--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------10 Bibliography------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------11 Introduction There are differences in the area of Synoptic Gospel as well as there are large amounts of similarities that can be proved with all the evidence written as well as physical. The synoptic Gospels are ones that include Matthew, Luke and Mark. The reason they are called synoptic, which means, seen together, is because...
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...southeastern baptist theological seminary Richard Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006) makes a persuasive argument that the Gospels display eyewitness testimony and thus renews the quest for the identity of the Beloved Disciple as the author of the Fourth Gospel. While Bauckham attributes this Gospel to “the presbyter John” mentioned by Papias, the authors of this study show that the patristic evidence more likely seems to support the authorship of John the apostle and that the literary device of inclusio in the Fourth Gospel, astutely observed by Bauckham, also favors the authorship of John the son of Zebedee. Key Words: Fourth Gospel, Beloved Disciple, John, authorship, apostle, Zebedee, John the Elder, Papias, Eusebius, Muratorian Fragment, Polycrates, Irenaeus, Bauckham Introduction Recent years have witnessed a significant number of publications on the identity of “the disciple Jesus loved” in John’s Gospel. The ever more daring proposals have included identifications of this figure as diverse as the apostle Thomas, Mary Magdalene, Lazarus, James the son of Zebedee, and even the Samaritan woman, among others. 1 Most recently, Richard Bauckham has weighed in on this debate in his landmark volume Jesus and the 1. Thomas: James H. Charlesworth, The Beloved Disciple: Whose Witness Validates the Gospel of John? (Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International, 1995), 414–21. He lists and evaluates 22 ...
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...order to better understand the true nature and identity of Jesus. Some contend that he was a prophet; others worship him as a god, while many others assert that he was merely a wise teacher with no link to the divine. In the second part of Graham Stanton’s book, The Gospels and Jesus, Jesus’ intentions, teachings, and downfall are examined and assessed with notable order and clarity, all in an attempt to resolve the fundamental question of Part II: who was Jesus of Nazareth? Stanton launches Part II with a chapter entitled “What do we know about Jesus of Nazareth?” Here, the debate as to whether or not Jesus existed is considered by exploring archaeological evidence from outside the gospels in an effort to establish what is known about Jesus. He cites various non-Christian, Jewish, and Christian sources after opening the chapter with a theory by G.A. Wells which argues that it was not until 100 CE that Jesus was worshipped as a “Savior” figure. Wells maintains that before 150 CE, there is no independent non-Christian support for the existence of Jesus and that the authors of the four New Testament gospels invented their traditions about the life of Jesus. As Stanton argues, this does not entirely make sense, since it is difficult to find signs of the convictions, emphases, and conflicts of the Christians of that period in the canonical gospels. Stanton continues to refer to sources outside of the gospels such as the non-Christian writings of the Roman historian Tacitus,...
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...The Preexistence of Jesus: Jesus’ Divine Origin and Identity in the Gospel of Mark Andrew Kutz REL 371 - New Testament Dr. Jason Bruner February 27, 2015 Introduction Bart Ehrman, a New Testament scholar and author of The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Church Writings, was once a strong proponent of the view that the Gospel of John, alone, presents Jesus as divine: Until a year ago I would have said – and frequently did say, in the classroom, in public lectures, and in my writings – that Jesus is portrayed as God in the Gospel of John but not, definitely not, in the other Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Nevertheless, over the course of writing his book How Jesus Became God, Ehrman admitted to a change of perspective, saying, “These [Synoptic] Gospels do indeed think of Jesus as divine.”As far as this statement, Ehrman and I agree. He does, however, clarify his position, as he posits a viewpoint that I will attempt to refute. For Mark, Jesus was adopted to be God’s son at his baptism. Before that, he was a mere mortal. For Luke, Jesus was conceived by God and so was literally God’s son, from the point of his conception. (In Luke Jesus did not exist prior to that conception to the virgin – his conception is when he came into existence). For John, Jesus was a pre-existent divine being – the Word of God who was both with God and was God at the beginning of all things – who became a human. Here he is not born of a virgin...
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...THE SYNOPTIC APOCALYPSE (MARK 13 PAR): A DOCUMENT FROM THE TIME OF BAR KOCHBA Hermann Detering* he thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of Mark belongs to those texts of the New Testament which have been examined particularly often in recent times. Despite many differences in detail, a certain consensus is apparent between exegeses in so far as they all assume that the text in question, the so-called “Synoptic Apocalypse” (hereafter abbreviated as the SynApoc), arose either in the first or the second half of the first century. This investigation, however, will show that there are a number of factors which exclude such a dating and that numerous of clues indicate rather an origin in the time of the Bar Kochba uprising (132-135 CE). To be sure, the possibility of assigning such a date, which diverges considerably from what is usually taken for granted, does not even occure to most scholars, since the conclusion of their investigation is clearly determined by a prior methodological assumption: since the common assumption is that both Mark and Matthew were written in the second half of the first century, the SynApoc must also belong to this period or even precede it. In my opinion, however, for various reasons, it is highly questionable whether the customary and generally accepted dating of Mark's gospel around 70 CE is correct. Whoever concerns himself with the question of when the Synoptic Gospels arose quickly notices that he has hit upon a genuine weak point in the scholarly study...
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...Did he interpret his death in advance as the climax of his mission? Or did he experience panic and even succumb to the fear that ‘all might come to nothing’? We can glean some answers by taking matters in stages,” (147). I think this is the thesis because this chapter states how Jesus appear to have understood his death by exploring different “stages”. In each section, O’ Collins compares the differences in each Gospel and states his own points about each “state” in Jesus’ death. Methodology: Source: Mark, Luke, Isaiah, John, Matthew, Acts, the beatitude and the Lord’s Prayer, Paul, Exodus, Psalms, Wisdom, Maccabees, S. McKnight, R. Bauckham, Martin Hengel and M. Bockmuehl. Audience: In this chapter, O’Collins does not state what the audience is. It seems that the audience should be all religious followers. Argument and Summary of Main Points: What Jesus Said of Himself In this section, O’ Collins states that the Parable of the Vineyard and the Tenants (Mark 12”1-12) is the only parable in which Jesus spoke clearly about his own mission. In the parable, the vineyard owner is God, and the tenant farmers are the leaders of Israel, and the servants who try to collect the owner’s share in the produce are the prophets. However, the farmers mistreat these agents of the owner, and even kill some of them. Finally, the owner (God) sends his son who is Jesus, but farmers also kill Jesus (148). After this parable, Jesus said “What then will the owner of the vineyard do...
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