The Synoptic Gospels & Q: The Synoptic Gospels
Welcome
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke when grouped together are often referred to as the Synoptic Gospels, or simply the Synoptics, within Biblical studies circles. This is a result of the close relationship they share in terms of the common stories they narrate about Jesus; so much so that scholars argue that there could be a common document upon which they drew upon: Q (from the German word Quelle) or that they are dependent upon each other for their information.
The purpose of this LibGuide is to provide students with important resources on better understanding the Synoptic Gospels and also the Synoptic Problem. If students would like to find commentaries on the individual Gospels they should go the New Testament Commentaries LibGuide.
This First Column will provide resources about the Synoptic Gospels in general; scroll down to see more specific books on the individual books.
NOTE: This is not everything the DTL has on these topics please use the search bar above to locate all of our resources.
Behind the Gospels: Understanding the Oral Tradition by "New Testament scholars often talk about “oral tradition” as a means by which material about Jesus reached the writers of the Gospels; but despite the recent flowering of interest in oral tradition, the study of memory, and the role of eye-witnesses, the latest scholarly advances have yet to fully penetrate the mainstream of academic Gospels scholarship, let alone the wider public. There is no convenient book-length treatment that can be used by students, or indeed by anyone else wishing to be informed about this crucial topic. Behind the Gospels fills this gap, both by offering a general theoretical discussion of the nature of oral tradition and the formation of ancient texts, and by providing a critical survey of the field, from classical form-criticism down to the present day." - Fortress Press
The Cambridge Companion to the Gospels by "The four gospels are a central part of the Christian canon of scripture. In the faith of Christians, this canon constitutes a life-giving witness to who God is and what it means to be truly human. This volume treats the gospels not just as historical sources, but also as crucial testimony to the life of God made known in Jesus Christ. This approach helps to overcome the sometimes damaging split between critical gospel study and questions of theology, ethics and the life of faith. The essays are by acknowledged experts in a range of theological disciplines. The first section considers what are appropriate ways of reading the gospels given the kinds of texts they are. The second, central section covers the contents of the gospels. The third section looks at the impact of the gospels in church and society across history and up to the present day." - Cambridge University Press
Exegesis and the Synoptics by "Does the resolute defense of their beliefs prove that the Christian proto-communities’ earliest documents about Jesus’ life did not have the discrepancies, contradictions, and conflicts which exegetes argue existed in the four Gospels? Their presence has divided the Gospels into the Synoptics and John, declared by most contemporary exegetes to be originally Greek in their composition. Geis claims that the various differences in Synoptic accounts can be explained by the evidence that reveals they were originally, whole or in part, Hebrew documents that were later translated into Greek. The texts lexically provide a basis for this Hebrew undercurrent. Exegesis and the Synoptics also maintains, against current exegesis, that Matthew’s role as a tax collector and a record keeper makes the claim that he kept a contemporaneous written account of the Lord quite credible." - UPA
How the Gospels Became History: Jesus and Mediterranean Myths by "In this eye-opening work, M. David Litwa explores how and why what later became the four canonical gospels take on a historical cast that remains vitally important for many Christians today. Offering an in-depth comparison with other Greco-Roman stories that have been shaped to seem like history, Litwa shows how the evangelists responded to the pressures of Greco-Roman literary culture by using well-known historiographical tropes such as the mention of famous rulers and kings, geographical notices, the introduction of eyewitnesses, vivid presentation, alternative reports, and so on. In this way, the evangelists deliberately shaped myths about Jesus into historical discourse to maximize their believability for ancient audiences." - Yale University Press
Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony by "'Jesus and the Eyewitness' argues that the four Gospels are closely based on the eyewitness testimony of those who knew Jesus. The author challenges the assumption that the accounts of Jesus circulated as 'anonymous community traditions', asserting instead that they were transmitted in the name of the original eyewitnesses. To drive home this controversial point, Bauckham draws on internal literary evidence, the use of personal names in first-century Jewish Palestine, and recent developments in the understanding of oral tradition. Jesus and the Eyewitnesses also taps into the rich resources of modern study of memory, especially in cognitive psychology, refuting the conclusions of the form critics and calling New Testament scholarship to make a clean break with this long-dominant tradition. Finally, Bauckham challenges readers to end the classic division between the 'historical Jesus' and the'Christ of faith', proposing instead the 'Jesus of testimony' as presented by the Gospels." - Eerdmans
The Message of the Sermon on the Mount by "The followers of Jesus are to be different," writes John Stott, "different from both the nominal church and the secular world, different from both the religious and the irreligious. The Sermon on the Mount is the most complete delineation anywhere in the New Testament of the Christian counter-culture." In the Sermon on the Mount, the "nearest thing to a manifesto" that Jesus ever uttered, we find Jesus' own description of what he wanted his followers to be and do. In this Bible Speaks Today volume, Stott guides readers through Jesus' well-known but often poorly understood teachings in Matthew 5 through 7. He identifies key themes in the Sermon that demonstrate its ongoing relevance to believers: a Christian's character, influence, righteousness, piety, ambition, relationships, and commitment. Leading us to listen carefully to the meaning of each verse in its context, Stott also confronts the challenges this text raises for today's Christians and draws out practical applications. A seven-session study guide at the end of the book will help you more deeply ponder the message of the Sermon on the Mount and how it speaks to your life. If the church truly lived by the standards and values Jesus set forth in this passage, Stott declares, it would be the authentic alternative society that he always intended it to be--showing a dark world what human life looks like under the gracious rule of God.
Parallel Lives of Jesus : A Guide to the Four Gospels by "In this highly readable introduction to the Gospels, Edward Adams demonstrates how the four canonical Gospels function separatelyâ€"as unique accounts of Jesus' lifeâ€"and as narrative renditions of a shared story: the Fourfold Gospel. Building on the premise that the Gospels are ancient biographies or "lives of Jesus," Adams examines parallel Gospel passages, highlighting the similarities and differences between them. He begins by approaching the four Gospels generally, then looks at each of them individually, and finally considers six key Gospel passages to further explore the unity and plurality of the Gospels in a more focused way. Adams's lucid prose helps to make this text ideal for beginning students of the Gospels." - Westminster John Knox Press
Reading the Synoptic Gospels by "This revised and expanded introductory text introduces students of the Bible to the layers of meaning that can be uncovered by serious study of the synoptic gospel texts. Included are two new chapters introducing ideological exegetical approaches to the gospels and a concluding chapter that helps the student synthesize the exegetical discoveries they have made using the methods taught in the book." - Chalice Press
The Sermon on the Mount by “In every sense of the word a heavyweight, this commentary is almost overwhelming in the monumental thoroughness of its exegesis and the magisterial command it demonstrates in respect of the whole range of the debates which currently rage around Matthew's Sermon on the Mount (SM) and Luke's Sermon on the Plain (SP)—methodological issues, the history of interpreta tion, the Umwelt, the internal literary evidence, and so on. It could scarcely be bettered in terms of either rigour or—can one say?—ruthlessness.” – David Catchpole
Synoptic Gospels by "This volume collects the best articles on the Synoptic gospels from the first fifty issues of the Journal for the Study of the New Testament. The range of the volume reflects the breadth of the journal itself. Here the reader will find ground-breaking studies that introduce new critical questions and move into fresh areas of enquiry, surveys of the state of play in this particular topic of New Testament studies, and articles that engage with each other in specific debates. For undergraduates this book offers an invaluable critical introduction to Synoptic Gospel studies. More advanced students and scholars can use it to find background material or to gain an overview of the research in this area of scholarship. This builds on the reputation of JSNT as a conduit for first-class research and a major influence within the scholarly community." - T&T Clark
Matthew
The Theology of the Gospel of Matthew by "Matthew's Gospel is the most significant Jewish-Christian document of the New Testament. Ulrich Luz both outlines and elucidates the story told in the Gospel, emphasizing its focal points: the Sermon on the Mount, the miracles, the renunciation of possessions, and particularly the theology of judgment by works, an idea that represents both a challenge, in its quest for a church set apart from non-Christians by deeds alone, and a burden, through its traumatic origin in the breach between Matthew's community and the Israelite majority." - CUP
The Audience of Matthew by "This book seeks to establish the inadequacy of readings of the Gospel of Matthew as intended for, and a reflection of, a local audience or community. Despite repeated challenges, the local audience thesis continues to dominate a large proportion of Matthean scholarship, and, as such, the issue of determining the Gospel's audience remains an open question." - T&T Clark
Discovering Matthew: Content, Interpretation, Reception by "This introduction to the interpretation of Matthew aims to encourage in-depth study of the text, and genuine grappling with the theological and historical questions raised, by providing a ‘map’ to the Gospel as a whole, and to key interpreters and interpretative debates. It draws on a range of methodological approaches (author-, text- and reader-centred), as complementary rather than mutually exclusive ways of interpreting the text. In particular, this new introduction reflects the growing scholarly attention to the reception history of biblical texts, increasingly viewed as a vital aspect of interpretation rather than an optional extra." - SPCK
The Gospel of Matthew in Its Roman Imperial Context by "In what sense does Matthew's Gospel reflect the colonial situation in which the community found itself after the fall of Jerusalem and the subsequent humiliation of Jews across the Roman Empire? To what extent was Matthew seeking to oppose Rome's claims to authority and sovereignty over the whole world, to set up alternative systems of power and society, to forge new senses of identity? If Matthew's community felt itself to be living on the margins of society, where did it see the centre as lying? In Judaism or in Rome? And how did Matthew's approach to such problems compare with that of Jews who were not followers of Jesus Christ and with that of others, Jews and Gentiles, who were followers?" - T&T Clark
Hellenistic Dimensions of the Gospel of Matthew by "In the search for Matthean theology, scholars overwhelmingly approach the Gospel of Matthew as "the most Jewish Gospel". Studies of its Sitz im Leben focus on its relationship to Judaism, whether arguing from the perspective that Matthew wrote from a cloistered Jewish community or as the leader of a Gentile rebellion against such a Jewish community. While this is undoubtedly an important and necessary discussion for understanding the Gospel, it often assumes too much about the relationship between Judaism and Hellenism (via Martin Hengel). Scholars who so sharply focus on this question tend to neglect Matthew’s provenance in a thoroughly Greek culture and first-century Judaism’s thorough Hellenization." - Mohr Siebeck
Israel, Church, and the Gentiles in the Gospel of Matthew by "Israel, Church, and the Gentiles in the Gospel of Matthew addresses one of the central theological problems of Matthew’s Gospel: what are the relationships between Israel and the Church and between the mission to Israel and the mission to the Gentiles? To answer these questions, Matthias Konradt traces the surprising transition from the Israel-centered words and deeds of Jesus (and his disciples) before Easter to the universal mission of Jesus’ earliest followers after his resurrection. Through careful historical and narrative analysis, Konradt rejects the interpretation of the Gospel of Matthew that the Church replaced Israel in God’s purposes—that is, the interpretation that because Israel rejected Jesus as Israel’s Messiah, the Church replaced Israel in the role of God’s chosen people." - Baylor University Press
Matthew's Community by "In this careful study, the unparalleled sayings in Matthew (the ‘M’ sayings) are investigated as a source of evidence for a reconstruction of the history of the community in which the various traditions were preserved. Using a wide range of criteria, Dr Brooks isolates fourteen ‘M’ sayings from major concentrations of unparalleled material in Matt. 5.17-6.18 and chs. 10 and 23, supplementing these with four additional sayings." - T&T Clark
Matthew and His Christian Contemporaries by "The volume will [...] establish the distinctiveness of Matthew by comparing his theological perspective with his major sources, Mark and Q, and with the two remaining Gospels, the Pauline epistles, the letter to the Hebrews and the epistle of James. The comparison of Matthew with non-canonical texts, the Didache and the letters of Ignatius of Antioch, is important because much work has been done in these areas recently. Given Matthew's distinctive portrayal of Jesus, a comparison of Matthew and the historical Jesus is also demanded in the context of this volume." - T&T Clark
Studies in Matthew's Gospel: Literary Design, Intertextuality, and Social Setting by "These Studies in Matthew’s Gospel by Wim J.C. Weren are the result of scholarly work carried out using recent methods in Biblical exegesis such as structural analysis, text semantics and intertextuality." - Brill
Methods for Matthew by "Today's biblical scholars study the Gospel of Matthew with a wide variety of methods that yield diverse and exciting insights. Methods for Matthew offers a primer on six exegetical approaches that have proved to be especially useful and popular. In each case, a prominent scholar describes the principles and procedures of a particular approach and then demonstrates how that approach works in practice, applying it to a well-known text from Matthew's Gospel. As an added bonus, each of the chosen texts is treated to three different interpretations so that the reader can easily compare the results obtained through one approach to those obtained through other approaches. The reader will learn a great deal about two stories from Matthew ('the healing of a centurion's servant' and 'the resurrection of Jesus') and the reader will also learn enough about each of these six approaches to understand their function in biblical studies today." - CUP
Mark
The Theology of the Gospel of Mark by "This 1999 book presents the reader with a comprehensive view of the theology underlying the first narrative account of the life of Jesus." - CUP
Character Studies and the Gospel of Mark by "The book summarizes the state of the discussion and examines obstacles to arriving at a comprehensive theory of character in the Second Gospel. Specific contributions include analyses of the representation of women, God, Jesus, Satan, Gentiles, and the Roman authorities of Mark's Gospel. This work is both an exploration of theories of character, and a study in the application of those theories." - T&T Clark
Mark's Jesus: Characterization as Narrative Christology by "Through a close narrative analysis, [Elizabeth Struthers Malbon] carefully examines various ways the Gospel discloses its central character. ... Holding significant implications for those who wish to use Mark's Gospel to make claims about the historical Jesus, as well as for those who wish to use Mark's Gospel to construct confessions about the church's belief, Malbon's research is a groundbreaking work of scholarship." - Baylor University Press
Mark as Story by "For thirty years, Mark as Story has introduced readers to the rhetorical and narrative skill that makes Mark so arresting and compelling a story. Rhoads, Dewey, and Michie have helped to pioneer our appreciation of the Gospels, and Mark in particular, as narratives originally created in an oral culture for oral performance. New in this edition are a revised preface and an afterword describing the significant role Mark as Story has played in the development of narrative criticism." - Fortress Press
A Preface to Mark: Notes on the Gospel in Its Literary and Cultural Settings by "A Preface to Mark not only shows us Mark in its original setting, but also suggests ways in which our own encounter with Mark's text may be significantly enriched. Its accessible style will serve as a good introduction to the Gospel for students as well as the general reader." - OUP
The Purpose of Mark's Gospel by "In this book, Adam Winn addresses the long debated question of the purpose of Mark's gospel. After placing the composition of Mark in Rome at a time shortly after the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, he seeks to reconstruct the historical situation facing both the Markan evangelist and his community. This reconstruction focuses on the rise of the new Roman Emperor Vespasian and the aftermath of the Jewish Revolt in Rome." - Mohr Siebeck
Reading the Gospel of Mark As a Novel by "The world is flooded with novels about secret messages or hidden texts. They all pretend to reveal the ultimate truth of Jesus. In this book, Geert Van Oyen goes back to the oldest gospel and explores its story as a challenging and revolutionary message for any reader. By employing a narrative critical approach Van Oyen demonstrates how the narrator accompanies readers in their quest for the identity of the protagonist Jesus. Along the way readers will discover that faith in Jesus is not a matter of theoretical truth but of practical experience. Who can remain indifferent when they hear the paradox at the heart of the gospel: "Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all"?" - Wipf & Stock
The Rhetoric of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark by "Young and Strickland analyze the four largest discourses of Jesus in Mark in the context of Greco-Roman rhetoric in an attempt to hear them as a first-century audience would have heard them. The authors demonstrate that, contrary to what some historical critics have suggested, first-century audiences of Mark would have found the discourses of Jesus unified, well-integrated, and persuasive. They also show how these speeches of the Markan Jesus contribute to Mark‘s overall narrative accomplishments." - Ausburg Fortress Press
Redactional Style in the Marcan Gospel by "St Mark's Gospel was put together from oral and perhaps written source material, which the redactor-editor edited and linked together by `seams' or joining phrases. The evangelist is thus regarded as a translator/editor of sources, and also as a creative artist in his shaping of the material and in his editorial writing which moulds the disparate sources into an integrated narrative. Dr Pryke tests some eighteen syntactically unusual features of 'Markan usage' statistically to see if they are mainly source material (S) or redactional (R). Objective criteria are provided for distinguishing redactional passages, and the linguistic method is used to see if residual S passages might be converted to R. - CUP
Reading Mark in Context: Jesus and Second Temple Judaism by "Over the last several decades, the Jewishness of Jesus has been at the forefront of scholarship and students of the New Testament are more than ever aware of the importance of understanding Jesus and the Gospels in their Jewish context. Reading Mark in Context helps students see the contour and texture of Jesus' engagement with his Jewish environment. It brings together a series of accessible essays that compare and contrast viewpoints, theologies, and hermeneutical practices of Mark and his various Jewish contemporaries. Going beyond an introduction that merely surveys historical events and theological themes, this textbook examines individual passages in Second Temple Jewish literature in order to illuminate the context of Mark's theology and the nuances of his thinking." - Zondervan
Luke
The Theology of the Gospel of Luke by "The Gospel of Luke, often mined for information about the life of Jesus, is also one of the earliest Christian examples of narrative theology. Luke goes to great lengths to ground the work of Jesus in the continuing story of God's redemptive plan, and his emphasis on the ongoing character of that story challenges his audience to discern the purpose of God and order their lives around it. This exploration of the way in which he accomplishes his theological task in the first century is both informative and illuminating for contemporary readers." - CUP
Luke's Literary Creativity by "A combination of two classic discussions in New Testament scholarship, the contributions in this volume shed light on the still unsolved synoptic problem by using the well-coined concept of rewriting to describe the relationship between the synoptic gospels. The contributions work with the hypothesis that the synoptic tradition can be conceived of as a process of rewriting: Matthew rewrote Mark and Luke rewrote Mark and Matthew. This approach to the synoptic problem dismantles the grounds for the otherwise widely accepted two-source theory. If it can be shown that Luke knew Matthew’s Gospel the Q-hypothesis is superfluous." - T&T Clark
Luke and the Law by "The theme of law in Luke's Gospel has rarely been discussed, and then only tangentially in studies concerned with recovering Jesus' view of the law. The evidence of Acts has received considerably more attention, but almost always in the context of a comparison with Paul's view of the law or a reconstruction of the historical events which lie behind the narrative of Acts. A notable exception is J. Jervell's essay on 'The Law in Luke - Acts' in which he argues that Luke presents a consistent and conservative view of the law, viz. that the Church, as the renewed Israel, is committed to the law, Jewish-Christians being obliged to keep the whole of it and Gentile Christians those parts relevant to them. He thus disagrees with Conzelmann, who argues that the apostolic decree freed the Church once and for all from its previous obligation to the law." - CUP
Luke and the Politics of Homeric Imitation: Luke–Acts as Rival to the Aeneid by "Luke and the Politics of Homeric Imitation: Luke–Acts as Rival to the Aeneid argues that the author of Luke–Acts composed not a history but a foundation mythology to rival Vergil’s Aeneid by adopting and ethically emulating the cultural capital of classical Greek poetry, especially Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and Euripides's Bacchae....Luke was not a historian any more than Vergil was, and, as the Latin bard had done for the Augustine age, he wrote a fictional portrayal of the kingdom of God and its heroes, especially Jesus and Paul, who were more powerful, more ethical, and more compassionate than the gods and heroes of Homer and Euripides or those of Vergil’s Aeneid." - Fortress Press
Luke and Vergil by "MacDonald argues that the Gospel writers borrowed from established literary sources to create stories about Jesus that readers of the day would find convincing. In Luke and Vergil MacDonald proposes that the author of Luke-Acts followed Mark’s lead in imitating Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, but greatly expanded his project, especially in the Acts, but adding imitations not only of the epics but also of Euripides’ Bacchae and Plato’s Socratic dialogues. The potential imitations include spectacular miracles, official resistance, epiphanies, prison breaks, and more. The book applies mimesis criticism and uses side-by-side comparisons to show how early Christian authors portrayed the origins of Christianity as more compelling than the Augustan Golden Age."
Luke the Priest: The Authority of the Author of the Third Gospel by "This book focuses on the authority and status of the author of Luke-Acts. What authority did he have to write a Gospel, to interpret the Jewish Scriptures and traditions of Israel, to interpret the Jesus traditions, and to update the narrative with a second volume with its interpretation of Paul and the other apostles who appear in the Acts narrative? Rick Strelan constructs the author as a Jewish Priest, examining such issues as writing and orality, authority and tradition, and the status and role of priests. The analysis is set within the context of scholarly opinion about the author, the intended audience and other related issues." - Routledge
Luke the Theologian by "In this completely revised and updated edition, François Bovon provides a critical assessment of the last fifty-five years of scholarship on Luke-Acts. The study divides thematically, with individual chapters covering the subjects of history and eschatology, the role of the Old Testament, Christology, the Holy Spirit, conversion, and the church. Each chapter begins with a consideration of the exegetical and theological problems unique to each theme in Luke-Acts before providing a detailed survey and critique of contemporary English, German, French, Spanish, and Italian New Testament scholarship." - Baylor University Press
New Light on Luke: Its Purpose, Sources, and Literary Context by "This radical new interpretation reveals many connections between Luke and Johannine traditions. Comparision of pericopae shared by Luke and John suggests that the usual assumptions of Lukan priority may be mistaken; instead his may be chronologically the fourth gospel. Luke nevertheless treats his sources in different ways, his response being both critical and creative. He aims to give security to Christians by including as much as possible and reconciling conflicting traditions, while firmly excluding heretical misinterpretation. Shellard also includes a consideration of Luke's use of possible sources, both canonical and extra-canonical, and places Luke-Acts in its literary context, noting among other things the presentation of Rome as a facilitator of evangelization and a promoter of co-existence." - T&T Clark
The Paradox of Salvation: Luke's Theology of the Cross by "This study refutes the allegation that the author of Luke–Acts showed no systematic thought about the significance of Jesus's death, that is, he has no theologia crucis. Peter Doble focuses sharply on the Gospel's death scene and explores those features which appear in Luke alone, then extends the results into the longer account of Jesus's final days in Jerusalem. In the final section Doble demonstrates how specific words and patterns from Wisdom shape and fill Luke's retelling of the story of Jesus's entrapment, trials and death. Luke wanted his readers to understand that what had happened to Jesus was not a humiliating rejection but in accord with scripture's presentation of God's plan for salvation, and he modelled traditional material about Jesus's road to the crucifixion around an explanatory model which he drew from Wisdom." - CUP
The Plan of God in Luke-Acts by "This study examines one significant theological theme in Luke-Acts, that of 'The plan of God'. It traces the way this theme is developed throughout Luke-Acts, both through direct statements by the writer and through various associated means such as divine appearances, signs and wonders, the fulfilment of prophecy, and indications of fate as of necessity. Dr Squires locates Luke's use of this theme in the context of the history-writing of the Hellenistic period, noting numerous passages in those works which illumine Luke's theological purposes. His book shows how the notion of the plan of God is used by Luke as he writes to confirm his readers' faith, encouraging them to bear witness to this faith, and equipping them for the task of defending it." - CUP
The Preface to Luke's Gospel by "Luke's two-volume work begins with a formal preface unlike anything else in the New Testament, and it has long been academic orthodoxy that Luke's choice of style, vocabulary, and content in this short passage reveal a desire to present his work to contemporary readers as 'History' in the great tradition of Thucydides and Polybius. This study challenges that assumption: far from aping the classical historians, Dr Alexander argues, Luke was simply introducing his book in a style that would have been familiar to readers of the scientific and technical manuals which proliferated in the hellenistic world. The book contains a detailed study of these Greek 'scientific' prefaces as well as a word-by-word commentary on the Lucan texts. In her concluding chapters, Alexander seeks to explore the consequences of this alignment both for the literary genre of Luke-Acts (is it meant to be read as 'history'?) and for the social background of the author and the book's first readers." - CUP
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The Synoptics by Christopher Crawford is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.