Synothic Problem Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Synothic Problem - Research Paper Example In the New Testament, one can find 4 Gospels, Acts, 21 Epistles, and the book of Revelation.2 This paper will focus on the four gospels. These gospels are the written by Jesus’ apostles: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. However, among the four, the gospel according to John has a different chronology, pattern and wording. This is unlike the other 3 remaining gospels. The gospels according to Matthew, Mark and Luke are also known as the Synoptic Gospels. What is the meaning of the Synoptic? The dictionary meaning of the word is â€Å"presenting or taking the same or common view, specifically often relating to the first three Gospels of the New Testament.†3 It is quite redundant that the term synoptic gospels are being used with reference to the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke when just by the term synoptic one can already refer to the gospels. The 3 gospels have a sense of parallelism with regard to structure, language, chronology, and even some points of arguments.4 â€Å"The problem of the relationship between the three ‘Synoptic Gospels’ (Mt., Mk., Lk.) posed by the amount of subject matter which they share and the many similarities in wording and order. In modern times most scholars have held (1). that Mk. was the earliest of the Synoptic Gospels and that it was used as a source by Mt. and Lk., and (2). that for the non-Marcan material common to Mt. and Lk., their authors drew independently on a lost common source (or sources) known as ‘Q’ (q.v.). This ‘two-document hypothesis’ (that Mt. and Lk. are based on Mk. and ‘Q’) was developed mainly in Germany in the 19th cent., was given classic expression by B. H. Streeter, and came to be almost universally accepted. In the second half of the 20th century, a few scholars challenged the priority of Mk. and several denied the existence of ‘Q’.†5 When analyzing this statement by Livingstone, the term â€Å"problem† being used is actually not much of a problem. It is more of a clarification of the