Why are the Books of Matthew Mark Luke similar?

Answer 1

Matthew was written first. And it is theorized that mark and luke borrow heavily from Matthew, and put a different spin on things. John does the same, but his spin is that Jesus is the almight son of god, that preforms miracles. there is little mention of Jesus being divine from the other writers.

see link "Q Document"This is indeed a difficult and complex question, with literally hundreds of books being written about what is commonly called the 'synoptic problem'. Some ideas would be these:

Firstly, they all had access to eyewitness material, either from their own experience (in the case of Mathew) or from those who did. So their would have been common elements.

Secondly, the material they described was of a similar nature and in many cases required a similar, almost identical vocabulary to describe it.

Thirdly, they had a number of sources at their disposal, both written and oral. What is difficult to ascertain is who borrowed from who as their certainly seem to be some striking similarities in some of the accounts.

Answer 2

A:Because the Gospels of Matthew and Luke were copied in large part from the Gospel of Mark, almost everything in Mark's Gospel is to be found in both Matthew and Luke, although there are many elaborations.

Matthew and Luke were also based in part on the hypothetical sayings document known as the 'Q' document. This material common to both gospels is presented mainly in the form of parables. However, since Q provided no information about the time or context in which Jesus might have spoken these parables, the two evangelists had to place them in their own contexts, which could vary between the two gospels.

Answer 3

AnswerMark's Gospel was the original gospel of Jesus and Matthewcontains some 600 of the 666 verses in Mark. Lukefollows suit, except that there is a 'Missing Block' believed to have been 13 pages missing from the copy of Mark's Gospel that the author of Luke was using. Material in Mark and Matthew that is consequently missing from Luke is:

• Jesus walking on water
• Jesus in the region of Gennesaret
• clean and unclean
• the faith of the Syro-Phoenician woman
• the trip through Sidon and the Decapolis
• the healing of the deaf and mute man
• Jesus feeds the four thousand
• the yeast of the Pharisees and Herod
• the healing of a blind man at Bethsaida
• Jesus and the disciples around Caesarea Philippi.

The principal stories actually in all three include:

• Baptism of Jesus
• Temptation by Satan
• Imprisonment of John the Baptist
• Death of John the Baptist
• Call of the apostles, although Luke follows Markless closely than does Matthew
• Various healings and parables
• Feeding the 5000
• The Transfiguration
• Entry to Jerusalem
• Jesus foretells the destruction of the Temple
• The Last Supper
• The prayers at Gethsemene
• The arrest of Jesus
• The two trials of Jesus - first before the Sanhedrin, then Pontius Pilate.

  Once again, Luke follows Mark less closely than does Matthew, introducing a further trial by Herod Antipas

• The crucifixion of Jesus

Nothing that follows the crucifixion is really common to all three synoptic gospels, because Mark originally ended at verse 16:8, with the young man telling the women that Jesus was risen and they told no one. The authors of Matthew and Luke had to create their own endings, and each ending is entirely different to the other. The "Long Ending" (verses 16:9-20) was added to Mark's Gospel long afterwards to provide the necessary resurrection appearances and to more or less harmonise it with Matthewand Luke.

Answer 4

One of the most significant similarities between the three, at least in regards to their differences with John, is the prophecy of end times. This theme is nearly completely absent from John. As for other similarities, there is only one Passover in these three whereas there are three in John throughout Jesus' ministry, some of the miracles are the same, Jesus was tried and crucified by the Romans, his tomb was empty, and although the earliest manuscripts of Mark end at the empty tomb, they all three agree that Jesus was resurrected. It should be noted that the devil is in the details here. None of the accounts completely agree with one another when it comes to details.

Answer 5

A:Mark was the first gospel to be written, approximately 70 CE, with Luke substantially copied from it, so we should expect to see many similarities in the two gospels. There is, however, one substantial section of Mark that is missing from Luke, and for that reason is known as the 'Missing Block'. This comprises a total of 74.5 verses from Mark 6:47 to Mark 8:27a, that are omitted from Luke, resulting in the curious conjunction found in Luke 9:18 "And it came to pass as he was alone praying, his disciples were with him: and he asked them ..." These clauses are more meaningful when found in Mark at the start and end of the material missing from Luke. It has been suggested that the person who provided the copy of Mark to the author of Luke realised that he would be offended by the passage in which Jesus called gentiles 'dogs' (7:27) and so removed that page and a further twelve pages so that the gap would not be apparent.

Apart from the Missing Block, Luke's Gospel contains much of the material from Mark, although with some alterations or elaborations. The author of Luke was unaware of the chiastic structure in Mark's account, but otherwise followed it more or less faithfully, adding material from 'Q' and further material unique to Luke.

In the Passion story, Mark breaks down the last twenty four hours into eight intervals of just three hours, with important event associated with each interval. Luke follows these events, but omits some of the careful timing inherent in Mark. Luke contains some elaboration in the passages about the Garden of Gethsemene and the arrest, but omits the story of the young man fleeing naked. Again, the story of Peter's denials contains some elaborations, but is recognisably similar.

The trial story in Luke is quite close to Mark's, except for the addition of the passage in which Pontius Pilate attempts to get Herod Antipas to take responsibility for the execution of Jesus. There are further elaborations in the crucifixion story, but once again it is recognisably similar to the original. The most noteworthy changes are that one of the two thieves crucified with Jesus repented, and the different last words of Jesus. For Luke, his last words were, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." The pagan centurion spoke the same words as in Mark, not sarcastically (as in Mark) but to glorify God.

Answer 6

The Books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are referred to as the Synoptic Gospels because they share many similarities in their content and structure. These three books often recount similar events in the life of Jesus and share overlapping passages of text. This similarity is believed to be a result of their shared sources and a common chronological framework used by the authors.