The Synoptic Problem Essay

The Gospel of Luke was also written around eighty CE, written somewhere outside of Palestine (Tatum, 1999, p.34). The author may have been Luke the Gentile Christian, writing to another Gentile, Theophilus. Like Matthew, Luke is strongly believed to be written after Mark, with references from him, “Q” and “L” if following the Two (Four)-Document Hypothesis. The authors of Luke and Matthew are believed to be written during the same time without the knowledge of knowing. As mentioned before, Luke is about fifty percent longer than Mark is, making it important source since it contains more information about the historic life of Jesus. There is also a second part to Luke which is the book Acts, but is separate in Bible. Both include the beginnings

All stories explained in the gospels have similar results and main ideas, like Mark, Matthew and Luke as to the Gospel of John is a little more different. The stories of Mark, Matthew and Luke are known as synoptic because

The Gospel according to Matthew is the first book of the New Testament. The story explains how the Messiah, Jesus, was refused by Israel and finally sent the disciples to preach the gospel around the whole world. As Matthew wrote for his fellow Jews, he wrote his Gospel in the language Jesus spoke, Aramaic, which led early Church Fathers to believe Matthew’s was the first Gospel. On the other hand, the Gospel of Mark teaches that Jesus is the Son of God who assumed human nature. Mark wrote the gospel in Greek for a Gentile-Christian audience, which was undergoing persecution, perhaps in Rome. A central theme is that following Jesus often means that a Christian must suffer like Jesus did. Mark’s Gospel points out that Jesus accepted this important title, but that he was reluctant to let people know his identity. (Matthew 26:26-30 and Mark 14:22-26 )

John Mark was the author of the book of Mark in the New Testament. John Mark was traveling companion of Paul and interpreter for Peter in Rome(Harris,2014). It is believed that his accounts in the book of Mark came from oral passing knowledge regarding Jesus from individuals in the area. This word of mouth passing of information is hard for scholars to verify. Some say that John Mark wrote his gospel after the Jewish Revolt against Rome began. Scholars come to ths belief based on the focus on discord towards believers, war and destruction which would bring about the second coming of Christ(Harris,2014). With all the clues and information found in the book of Mark,it is still not known for cetainity who wrote the Gospel. The true author is considered

Similarly, the topic of the Synoptic Gospel and its problems relate to the questions surrounding this core issue. With the Synoptic Gospel, similarities are found across all three gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. Stories were accounted for and verbal identical versions were found too, so the speculative questions that revolved around this matter, were how can this phenomenon be explained? Who copied from whom? Or was there an older document that acted as a source? The same type of questions can also be said for the Documentary Hypothesis as the same themes are running through this

The gospel of Mark is a short recollection of Jesus life, it has many details but is missing pieces or additions to his life. The Gospel of mark was said to have lost pieces, and also the first account of Jesus life. Although it is not as detailed in some areas as it is in others, it tells many accounts of Jesus life on earth and what kind of a person he was, the life he lived, his struggles and his ending.

The Synoptic Gospels are composed of the gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke. These three gospels covered many of the same stories; yet, they disagree with each other on various details within certain stories. Also, numerous events that are in Mark, is not in Matthew or Luke and vice versa. Many historians have concluded that Mark was the first of the three gospels written and that Matthew and Luke used Mark as a source to their own gospels. The Synoptic Gospels were first written in Greek, which would suggest to some ambiguity within Mark, Matthew, and Luke due to certain perceptions and translations within the Greek language. One ambiguity that is shown within the Synoptic Gospels dealt with Jesus’s view on marriage and divorce. Using

The first three Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke is called “synoptic”, because they have a mutual interpretation (the word synoptic means “together in sight”). Matthew, Mark, and Luke cover several of the equivalent happenings of Jesus’ life. A greater part of them from Jesus’ ministry in Galilee. Approximately 90 percent of Mark’s evens of Christ are found in Matthew, and about 50 percent of Mark is noted in Luke’s gospel. All of the parables of Christ are established in the Synoptics.

This narrative criticism was completed using online resources, comparative biblical texts including the New King James Bible, New Living Translation, Revised Standard and American Standard Version Bibles. The Gospel of Mark has no authorship specifically mentioned in its book, but is traditionally attributed to Mark ,an associate of Peter, around AD 60-70 , it is also confirmed by Church fathers around AD 140, although there is still some continued question as to its authorship. Written to early Christian communities, most likely Gentile Christians in Rome, based on the explanations of Jewish customs and the reference to Roman time system.

The first three gospels are sometimes called the 'synoptic' (same view) gospels. This is because they each cover teaching and miracles by Jesus that are also covered in another account. John, writing later, recounts Jesus' other words and miracles that have a particular spiritual meaning.

The widely accepted theoretical solution for the synoptic problem is a second source, usually called the ‘Q’ scroll. The ‘Q’ scroll is thought to contain 235 verses, while leaving out any narrative referring to Jesus’ birth, early life, or death. The scroll has been reconstructed from shared knowledge between the gospels. This is commonly called the “two-source hypothesis”, where the Gospel of Mark and the ’Q’ scroll were accessible by the authors of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. This is brought around by the fact that Matthew and Luke share commonalities with Mark that they do not share with each other. The “two-source hypothesis” gains further support from the timeline, which puts Mark as the first gospel around 70 CE and Matthew and Luke following suit around 85 CE.

A Gospel in general, is a textual document written in narrative form of the good news and teachings proclaimed by Jesus to announce the power of God. Mark’s Gospel is one of four others (Matthew, Luke and John), where each Gospel has its differences in structure, language and theological slants. Mark’s Gospel is divided into three main sections: The Ministry of Jesus, Jesus’ prologue of foretelling his Passion, and his Passion and Death. Mark set out

Mark: The Gospel of Mark tells the story of Jesus Christ’s life from when he was baptized by John the Baptist until the days of his death, and his resurrection. Mark was the second of four Gospels although some Scholars argue and insist Mark was the first Gospel written 1. Mark was written by John Mark in AD 65, with a target audience of Roman Christian beleivers 2. Mark was written in a unique manner in regards to literary genre, as it contains figures of speech, and portray life situations in a passionate story like setting that can make the reader feel as if he is there 3. The Gospel of Mark is the shortest of the four Gospels, however it is written in a manner that emphasizes more so on Jesus’s works than Jesus’s words 4. The key theme in Mark is to portray the life of Jesus Christ as the son of God 5, and the purpose was to show the human qualities and emotions that Jesus displayed from anger (Mark 3:5), and compassion (Mark 1:41). Some of the key events of Jesus Christ’s life in the Gospel Mark include his miracles, his entrance into Jerusalem, the last supper, his arrest and trial, his crucifixion, his resurrection, and his ascension 6. The Gospel of Mark ends with his instruction to the eleven Apostles “And he said unto them “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 16:16), and his ascension into Heaven (Mark 16:19).

There are small differences within each book. This raises some questions with what book was written first and where the information came from. One theory is that there is a third party book named Q. Historically we know Mark is the first book written. With the Q theory it is said that Matthew and Luke use information from both Mark and Q to write their own version of the story of Jesus. Which could account for the extra or missing parts between Matthew and Luke. There is also another theory that Matthew was the first book then Mark and Luke were written after. This could fit because Matthew has the most information and the beginning genealogy. Mark and Luke could have simply left out the parts they felt weren’t as important to the

This essay will show contrasts in views on the Gospel of John regarding authorship,dates, and the relationship between John's Gospel and the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. Some comparison of thought, concerning composition and life setting, will also be presented.