Website about the Synoptic Problem
- The Synoptic Problem Websiteby Stephen Carlson
Last updated Mar 2010
Books About Synoptic Problem
Just an alphabetical listing of ebooks related to the Synoptic Problem.
Hover over the "info" icon to read a brief abstract of the book.
Goulder and the Gospels by
Goulder and the Gospels is the first comprehensive response to the radical challenge Michael Goulder has posed for New Testament scholarship. Goulder dispenses with all hypothetical sources-Q, M and L and postulates highly creative evangelists who write in the light of the liturgy. In this penetrating critique, Goodacre provides a critical overview of Goulder's work, focusing on several key areas, the vocabulary of Q, the language of the Minor Agreements, the creativity of Luke and the lectionary theory. He does not simply assess the plausibility of Goulder's ideas but also develops new ways to test them. The theories are sometimes found to be wanting, but at the same time Goulder is reaffirmed as one of the most important and stimulating Biblical scholars of this generation.
ISBN: 9781850756316Publication Date: 1996-12-01
Narrative Elements in the Double Tradition by
For a long time mainstream gospel scholarship has assumed that the so-called Q material (the "double tradition") in Matthew and Luke represents a document or tradition that was almost exclusively orientated towards the sayings of Jesus of Nazareth, with little interest in a narrative about him. This book argues, on the contrary, that the narrative material in the double tradition existed from the very beginning within a coherent Jesus narrative that ran from his baptism to his passion. Far from being inserted by Matthew and Luke into the framework of Mark, the double tradition is structured on the very same narrative framework as the Gospel of Mark (a framework that predates Mark). Conventional dichotomies in gospel origins, the historical Jesus, and the history of early Christianity are thus drawn into question.
ISBN: 9783110175257Publication Date: 2002-07-31
Oral Performance, Popular Tradition, and Hidden Transcript in Q by ISBN: 9781589832480Publication Date: 2006-10-01
The Synoptic Gospels and the Psalms As Prophecy by
The Book of Psalms is one of the most frequently cited books in the New Testament. The Synoptic Evangelists seem to read the Psalms not primarily as prayers but as prophecies of the future. They discovered in its language prophecies concerning the life and ministry of Jesus and attempted to show how Jesus' life was prefigured in the Psalms. Samuel Subramanian examines the topic within the broader use of the Old Testament in the New Testament, that of the prophetic reading of the Psalms in the Synoptic Gospels and in the context of Second Temple Judaism. Although others have treated individual psalm quotations as prophecy, my work is the first to examine all of the psalm quotations within the Synoptic Gospels in this light and the first to demonstrate that these excerpts were used prophetically. In some cases, these psalm quotations were used by the Synoptic Evangelists in a manner that is thought to fulfill a prophecy from or about Jesus within the gospel narratives, even though this particular use of the psalms by the Synoptic Evangelists has not been widely recognized previously. This study shows how similar exegetical techniques of looking for prophecies in the Psalms was practiced by non-Christian Jews of the period.
ISBN: 9780567045317Publication Date: 2008-01-21
Why Are There Differences in the Gospels? by
Anyone who reads the Gospels carefully will notice that there are differences in the manner in which they report the same events. These differences have led many conservative Christians to resort to harmonization efforts that are often quite strained, sometimes to the point of absurdity. Many people have concluded the Gospels are hopelessly contradictory and therefore historically unreliable as accounts of Jesus. The majority of New Testament scholars now hold that most if not all of the Gospels belong to the genre of Greco-Roman biography and that this genre permitted some flexibility in the way in which historical events were narrated. However, few scholars have undertaken a robust discussion of how this plays out in Gospel pericopes (self-contained passages). Why Are There Differences in the Gospels? provides a fresh approach to the question by examining the works of Plutarch, a Greek essayist who lived in the first and second centuries CE. Michael R. Licona discovers three-dozen pericopes narrated two or more times in Plutarch's Lives, identifies differences between the accounts, and analyzes these differences in light of compositional devices identified by classical scholars as commonly employed by ancient authors. The book then applies the same approach to nineteen pericopes that are narrated in two or more Gospels, demonstrating that the major differences found there likely result from the same compositional devices employed by Plutarch. Showing both the strained harmonizations and the hasty dismissals of the Gospels as reliable accounts to be misguided, Licona invites readers to approach them in light of their biographical genre and in that way to gain a clearer understanding of why they differ.
ISBN: 9780190264260Publication Date: 2016-12-19
Links to Articles about Synoptic Problem
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The links below are saved searches in the Atlas database. They are searches for the Subject Heading mentioned. There are no limiters used. Consult with your professor as to things like acceptable date range or if they must be "peer reviewed" articles.
You may want to add another search term in the second search box, at the top of the screen, to narrow the list.
Hint: read the subject headings for the articles listed and only use those that fulfill your needs.
Links to Electronic Encyclopedia Entries
- Anchor Bible Dictionary Synoptic Problemby C.M. Tucker
** Must log in using APU credentials** - Dict of Jesus and Gospels on Synoptic Problemsby A.D. Baum
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Psst, a hint from a librarian (Steve Jung)
To add to your work, look up the idea of paraphrasis (Greek for paraphrase) in a first century writing textbook. Once you've opened the book, use the scroll bar and go to "Location 87", it is on paraphrasis. Read how an ancient writer is expected to handle someone else's work.
- PROGYMNASMATAKennedy, George Alexander. Progymnasmata: Greek Textbooks of Prose Composition and Rhetoric. E-book, Atlanta, Ga.: Society of Biblical Literature, 2003.