What are the literary relationships of the synoptic Gospels?

Answer 1

A:Matthew, Mark and Luke are often referred to as the synoptic gospels, a term which means 'seeing with the same eye', because of their similarities and particularly their frequent use of exactly the same Greek text. For example, whenever Matthew and Luke agree with Mark, they do so in the same sequence and often in exactly the same words in the Greek language, clear evidence of copying.

All the New Testament gospels were written anonymously in Greek. In spite of this, the second-century Church Fathers attributed two of them to disciples who likely had no knowledge of the Greek language (Matthew and John) and two to companions of Paul (Mark and Luke). Modern biblical scholars say that there is no good reason to accept those attributions, and that we do not really know who wrote the gospels.

The second-century Church Fathers realised that there was a literary dependency among the three synoptic gospels, as they found by parallel readings in the Greek language. By the end of the second century they had formed the opinion that Matthew was written first, and that Mark and Luke were derived by copying Matthew's Gospel. Modern scholars agree there is a clear literary dependency, but have demonstrated that Mark was first and that the authors of Matthew and Luke relied on Mark for their knowledge of the life and mission of Jesus.

Matthew and Luke shared a further source, the hypothetical 'Q' document, for sayings material attributed to Jesus. Some other material in Luke's Gospel might have been inspired by the works of the Jewish historian, Josephus. There is additional material unique to each of Matthew and Luke, for which there is no known source, and which some scholars believe not to reflect real, historical events.

The consensus of biblical scholars is that Mark's Gospel was written approximately 70 CE. Raymond E. Brown (An Introduction to the New Testament) says that Mark seems to depend on traditions (and perhaps already shaped sources) received in Greek, however we do not know the origins or form of these traditions.

Matthew was written in the eighties of the first century, although Brown suggests that several years should be allowed either side of that decade. Luke is believed to have been written in the nineties or early in the second century. Luke's Gospel is also interesting because it was the main source of material used by the author of John's Gospel.

Answer 2

A:The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke are known as the synoptic ('seen with the same eye') gospels because when laid side by side and read synoptically in the original Greek language, it can be seen that Mark was the original New Testament gospels and that Matthew and Luke were substantially copied from it.