Liberty University

The Synoptic Problem

A paper submitted to Dr. Charles Powell
In partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the course NBST 525

Liberty Theological seminary

By
La Shawn Self

Lynchburg, Virginia
Sunday, August 14, 2011
The books of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; where written over 2000 years ago. These books excluding the Gospel of John are often called the synoptic Gospels. The term synoptic is derived from the Greek word meaning “seeing together.” These three books are comparable in their recording of the existence and ministry of Jesus. The wording of the synoptic Gospels is similar as well. For example, the account of the healing of the leaper occurs in all three books and the
Critics have also questioned, the information found in Matthew or Luke, but is not found in the book of Mark. This question supports the idea that Matthew and Luke wrote their own accounts of the Gospel with the aid of the Holy Spirit. Matthean Priority The Matthean Priority embraces the idea that the gospel according to Matthew was the first book in the Synoptic Gospels written and its author was Matthew the apostle himself. Using the genealogies of the beginning of the book of Matthew suggests that the book of Matthew was written first.[9] The Gospel according to Matthew was the dominate Gospel of those times and was accepted by the church fathers to be the authoritative source. Historians also believe that the original language of the Gospel of Matthew was written in Hebrew style in Hebrew or Aramaic and later translated into Greek. Redaction Criticism Redaction Criticism “regards the author of the text as editor (redactor) of his source material. Unlike its parent discipline, Form Criticism, redaction criticism does not look at the various parts of a narrative to discover the original genre; instead, it focuses on how the redactor has shaped and molded the narrative to express his theological goals.”[10] Critics who support redactionism do not look at the pieces of the author’s work, but the entire literary work of the author. These critics also have their own criteria; what information to use and what