Liberty Theological Seminary

The Synoptic Problem

A Paper
Submitted to Professor Laurie Schweinsberg
In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Course
New Testament Introduction
NBST 510




By Johnny Carter
Lynchburg, Virginia
September 2, 2013




CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION----------------------------------------------------------------------------------1
THE SYNOPTIC PROBLEM--------------------------------------------------------------------2
HOW THE GOSPELS ARE SIMILAR---------------------------------------------------------3
HOW THE GOSPELS ARE DIFFERENT-----------------------------------------------------5
SOLUTIONS TO FIX THE SYNOPTIC GOSPEL-------------------------------------------6
MY SOLUTION OF CHOICE-------------------------------------------------------------------8
SUMMARY-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------8
BIBLIOGRAPHY----------------------------------------------------------------------------------9
















INTRODUCTION
Throughout history and still today there have been countless books written about the life and
ministry of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The authors of many of these books have tried
desperately to give a factual account of the life and ministry of Jesus, nevertheless, as with most
books dealing with religion or the life of Christ there are bound to be many debates questioning
the accuracy or the sources used to compose these books. In spite of the many questions and the
books that have been written there are four books found in the New Testament that seems to give
a pretty accurate account of the life and ministry of Jesus. These four books are known as the
Four Gospels. Each book was written by the men who witnessed firsthand the life and ministry
of Jesus. These men known as Disciples of Christ are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Each book
shares a common theme; they all declare Christ as the son of God sent here to save the world.
However, neither of these books is without some type of controversy. Did Matthew, Mark and
Luke write their gospels independent of one another or did they borrow from each other or from
other sources?
1
Three of the four books written are similar in writing and events and because of
the similarities these three books are known as the Synoptic Gospels. Many scholars believe that
because the gospel of John does not contain certain features such as parables like the other three
gospels it cannot be part of the Synoptic Gospels. This paper will attempt to give a brief
glimpse into the history of the Synoptic Problem and the suggested solutions to fix the Synoptic
Problem.





1
Paul Enns, The Moody Handbook of Theology, Rev. and expanded. ed. (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2008), 724.


SYNOPTIC PROBLEM
The Synoptic Problem and the discussion of the origin of the possible mutual
relationships between the first three Gospels have been carried on with great vigor and ingenuity
since the First World War.
2
However, during the Enlightenment period, the subject of
harmonizing the bible was being discussed and most of the bible scholars scoffed at any
endeavor that was being made toward harmonizing the Gospels.
3
Many believed that the
scholars would try to manipulate their findings in order to claim it as divine inspiration.
Nevertheless, because of the similarities and differences between Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
bible scholars felt that the time was right for these four books to be compared and harmonized in
order to study the life of Christ. As with most major undertaking harmonizing the Gospels
would not be an easy task because many questions were starting to be asked about the four
Gospels. The Gospels were being viewed more and more as mere human literature in which
contradictions should be expected.
4
Matthew, Mark and Luke have often been referred to as the
Synoptic Gospels because of the similarities between all three. The term synoptic means with
the same eye or the same viewpoint
5
The similarities of structure, content and tone serve not
only to bind these three books together, but it also works to separate them from the Gospel of




2
David Alan Black and David R. Beck, eds., Rethinking the Synoptic Problem (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker
Academic, 2001), 12.
3
Andreas J. Kstenberger, L. Scott Kellum, and Charles L. Quarles, The Cradle, The Cross, and The Crown: an
Introduction to the New Testament (Nashville, Tenn.: B&H Academic, 2009), 157.
4
Kostenberger,157
5
Chad Brand, Charles Draper, and Archie England, eds., Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Nashville: Holman
Bible Publishers, 2003), s.v. Gospels, synoptic.


John.
6
Ever since the three Gospels appeared together in the canon of the New Testament no
one could read the Gospels without being aware of the resemblances and differences in their own
content.
7
During the eighteenth century a German scholar by the name of Johann Griesbach
initiated a major shift in thinking when he argued that the Gospel of John should be viewed
separately and the therefore the Gospels could not be harmonized.
8


HOW THE GOSPELS ARE SIMILAR
When seeking to find the similarities between the four Gospels scholars would use a tool
called a Gospel Synopsis.
9
With this tool scholars would be able to see various passages in the
Gospels side by side in parallel columns in order to compare them to each other. As Previously
stated Matthew, Mark and Luke are part of the Synoptic Gospel because of their similarities. But
what is it about these three Gospels that make them a part of the Synoptic Gospel? With the
Synopsis tool the scholars were able to piece together their findings by looking at
Similarities in wording - Because all three Gospels display some type of similarities in their
wording there is a strong possibility of a literary relationship between all three writers.
10
When
comparing the writings of all three it appears that Mark shares material with Matthew that Luke
doesnt have for example both Mark and Matthew share the rebuke of Peter that is not shared in


6
Christopher S. Baird, An Examination of the Synoptic Problem, (Lynchburg: Commonwealth Education
Consultants, Inc. 2007), Under Introduction, Kindle ebook.
7
James Iverach, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Volume 1(UK. Osnova Publishing, 2010), Under
the Synoptic Problem, Kindle ebook.
8
Michael A. Harbin, The Promise and the Blessing: a Historical Survey of the Old and New Testaments (Grand
Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2005), 377.
9
Kostenberger,159
10
Ibid,159


Luke. Also the words of Jesus sayings are identical or almost identical in Matthew 16:21-23;
Mark 8:31-33; and Luke 9:22
11

Similarities in Order Within all three Gospels are numerous periscopes or self-contained
units of narrative such as the account of Jesus healing of the leper in Mark 1:40-45
12
All three
Gospels share a very similar order of the way they record each periscope in describing the early
ministry of Christ. Based on the locations of each of these periscopes they can be arranged
topically, chronologically and geographically. The shared order of the periscopes suggests a
literary relationship between the Synoptic Gospel.
13

Similarities in Parenthetical and Explanatory Material Parenthetical and Explanatory
Material are the words or statements that are placed within parentheses sometimes used to add
additional information or to put emphasis on the statement. There is one shared parenthetical
statement between the Gospels and that statement is let the reader understand found in
Matthew 24:15-18; Mark 13:14-16 and Luke 21:20-22. However, the Gospel of Luke does not
have the added parenthetical explanatory material.
14
Since all three Gospels share identical
editorial comments or parenthetical material, this strongly implies literacy dependence.
Similarities in Old Testament Quotations This deals with the blending of the Old and New
Testament scriptures that basically say the same thing but in different ways. Old Testament and
New Testament quotations can come in various forms. There are times when a quotation may
seem like it is a direct translation of Old Testament Hebrew into Greek and there are times when


11
Ibid,159
12
Ibid,161
13
Ibid,162
14
Ibid,162-163


a quotation may seem like the writer of one of the Gospels may have changed things up and
paraphrased the quotation.
15
On occasion there may even be times when the New Testament
quotations can integrate or blend references together for several different texts. Matthew 11:1,
Mark 1:2 and Luke 7:27 are examples of New Testament quotations that can blend together
quotations such as Exodus 23:20 and Malachi 3:1 in exactly the same way. By examining
the content of the Old Testament quotations that are used in the Gospels, scholars are able to
understand the literary relationships between the Old and New Testament.
16


HOW THE GOSPELS ARE DIFFERENT
We saw the similarities between all three Gospels that made them a part of the Synoptic
Gospel. However, what was wrong with the Gospel of John that it could not be included in the
Synoptic Gospel? According to scripture Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were Disciples of
Christ and they all witnessed the ministry of Christ. Most importantly John was called the
disciple whom Jesus loved.
17
(John.13: 23).Yet when each disciple wrote their Gospels the
Gospel of John was considered different from the others. The German scholars K.G.
Bretschneider and D.F. Strauss both discredited Johns historical reliability and they even
believed that his Gospel dealt with myth, and not historical narrative.
18
So what made Johns
Gospel different? The consensus of the majority of the bible commentators from the eighteenth
century all seemed to agree that the writers of the Synoptic Gospels were interested in recording


15
Ibid,163
16
Ibid,163
17
All Bible references are from Holy Bible: The New International Study Bible (NIV), Zondervan Publishers, 4th
ed, 2008
18
Kostenberger,877


the history of Christ while John was primarily interested in theology.
19
When John wrote his
Gospel he did not include any events or references that the other writers included in their
writings nor does John include the baptism of Jesus or the breaking of the bread and giving of
the cup at the Last Supper.
20
In the Gospel of John there is no record of any lepers being
healed, there is no mention of any parables, something that was the cornerstone of Christ
ministry.
21
John makes mention of Christ visiting Jerusalem at least four times (2:13; 5:1;
7:12; 12:12) the Synoptic records only one visit. John records the washing of the disciples feet
and John calls Jesus the Lamb of God, and he records seven signs that point to Christ.
22
John
does not provide much information regarding the public ministry of Christ, John does however,
show Jesus having conversations with different individuals such as Nicodemus (chapter3) the
Samaritan woman (chapter 4) and the disciples in the upper room (John 13-17).
23
So because
John chose to write from a different perspective and his book was not lining up like the others
many scholars and theologians felted that was no need to include it in the Synoptic Gospel.

SOLUTIONS TO FIX THE SYNOPTIC PROBLEM
So now we come to the biggest question of all. How do we fix the Synoptic Problem?
There have been many proposed theories (to many to mention) of ways to go about fixing the
Synoptic Problem. As a matter of fact out of all the different theories there are four theories that
have generated the most talk.



19
Ibid,877
20
Chad Brand, 934. s.v John, Gospel of
21
Ibid,934
22
Ibid,934
23
Ibid,934


TwoSource Hypothesis Out of all the proposed solutions the Two-Source Hypothesis also
known as the Oxford Hypothesis is considered the most dominant solution.
24
This Hypothesis
argues that the Gospel of Mark came first and Matthew and Luke relied on another source
usually designated as Q for the non Markan material they shared.
25
However, during the last
several decades this theory has come under some intense scrutiny.
Two-Gospel Hypothesis - This solution formerly known as the Griesbach Hypothesis,
proposes that the Gospel of Matthew was the earliest Gospel to be written. It also proposes that
Luke used the Gospel of Matthew as a source and Mark used both Matthew and Luke as
sources.
26
However, this theory did not gain any momentum until 1995 after the New
Interpreters Bible came out and stated that the Markan priority was weak and inconclusive.
27

Farrer-Goulder Hypothesis This solution says that the Gospel of Mark was written first and
was adopted by Matthew, and then Luke used both Matthew and Mark
28
so there would be no
need for the Q hypothesis. In 1989 M .Goulder wrote a commentary on Luke that examined the
hypothesis that Luke used Matthew.
The Augustinian View Augustine believed that Matthew, who was an eyewitness, wrote the
first Gospel. He also believed that Mark used references from Matthew in the compilation of his
Gospel. Augustine also believed that Luke used Matthew and Mark in the compilation of his
Gospel.
29
This theory was supported by a few however; the majority of the scholars supported
either the Two-Gospel Hypothesis or the Two-Source Hypothesis.


24
Black and Beck,12
25
Ibid,12
26
Ibid,14
27
Ibid,14
28
Ibid,15
29
Kostenberger,165


MY SOLUTION OF CHOICE
Now comes the hard part of this research. After reading through several articles and reading
several books. I am now tasked with the choice of picking the solution I think is the best for
fixing the synoptic problem. However, I must first ask the question, what qualifies me to say
what is right or wrong when it comes to the word of God? After all this is the bible we are
talking about and it is the infallible, inerrant and inspired words of God and I believe that the
bible was written in the order that God had ordained. God gave us what we know about Jesus
earthly ministry in this way, not in another way that might better suit someones mechanistic,
tape recorder mentality.
30
Therefore, I believe that the Augustinian View is the best solution
for the Synoptic Problem. Like Augustine I believe the Gospel was written first by Matthew
followed by Mark, Luke and lastly the Gospel of John which was not a part of the Synoptic
Gospel. Under Augustines view he believes that each writer of the Synoptic borrowed from
each others works in order to complete their book. I may be wrong in my choice but
Augustines view is the closest to the way the bible is set up now.
SUMMARY
Does it really matter which Gospel came first? Does it really matter if Mathew, Mark and Luke
borrowed from each other? Does it really matter if John saw things differently so he decided to
write his Gospel from a theology point of view? The answer to all these questions is a
resounding no. It really does not matter how each writer viewed the gospel. The purpose of the
four gospels is to present the Good News in order to convert unbelievers and build up believers
in their faith.
31


30
Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids, Mich.:
Zondervan, 2003), 128.
31
Dr. James T. Reuteler Ph.D., The Messengers: A Study of the Four Gospels (Aurora, Create Space



Matthew wrote to the Jews and the purpose of his gospel was to prove that Jesus is the Messiah
the Eternal King.
Mark wrote to the Romans and the purpose of his gospel was to present the person, work and
teachings of Jesus.
Luke wrote to the Greeks and the purpose of his gospel was to present an accurate account of the
life of Christ and to present Christ as the perfect human and Savior.
John wrote his gospel to the world and the purpose of his gospel was to prove that Jesus is the
Son of God and that all who believe in him will have eternal life.
Im not saying that there is anything wrong with questioning why Matthew, Mark and Luke
chose to write their gospels so similar to each others and why John chose to go another way.
However, I believe we are focusing on something that we have no control over and it appears
like we are questioning the judgment of God. After all, the entire bible is not even written in
chronological order. Nevertheless, the message of the bible is not diminish from the purpose
which to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. After all God tells us that His thoughts are not
our thoughts and neither are our ways His ways (Isa.55:8). So I say the bible was put in the
order that God thought was best for the human race and it is not our job to question or try to
speculate His reasoning for He alone is God and He alone knows what is best.







BIBLIOGRAPHY

Baird, Christopher,S. An Examination of the Synoptic Problem. Lynchurgh: Commonwealth
Education Consultants,Inc., 2007.
Black, David Alan, and David R Beck. Rethinking The Synoptic Problem. Grand Rapids: Baker
Academic, 2001.
Brand, Chad,Draper,Charles,England,Archie. Holman Illustrated Dictionary. Nashville: Holman
Bible Publishing, 2003.
Enns, Paul. The Moody Handbook Of Theology. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2008.
Fee, Gordon D, and Douglas Stuart. How to read the Bible for All Its Worth. 3rd. Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, 2003.
Goodacre, Mark. The Synoptic Problem: A Way through The Maze. London: T & T Clark, 2004.
Harbin, Michael A. The Promise and the Blessing: a Historical Survey of the Old and New
Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005.
Iverach, James. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. UK.: Osnova, 2010.
Reuteler, James,T Dr. Ph.D. The Messengers : A study of the four Gospels. Aurora: Create Space
Independent Publishing Platform, 2012.