These three Gospels have been called “Synoptic,” a word which means “seeing together,” because they share in common a large amount of material, follow the same basic order, and stand apart from John, whose Gospel is unique among the four.

Long ago people realized you could display the text of the three Synoptic Gospels side by side in columns to form a synopsis or parallel Gospel or a harmony. When you do this you find that a large percentage of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are parallel. They share a large amount of verbatim agreement, though each of the three has unique ways of diverging from each other in small and large matters. Much is the same and some is different.

For a long time, people who have studied the Gospels in synopsis (parallel columns) have referred to “the Synoptic Problem.” That problem is: how do we account for the agreements and differences in the parallel accounts and in the other material in the Gospels? Many of the observations I will share here come from a book that I think is the simplest and best-explained handbook on the topic, by Mark Goodacre, The Synoptic Problem: A Way Through the Maze.

In this article I am focusing only on the way comparing the Gospels in synopsis helps us see that Mark was the first to be written. Many other fascinating topics arise from a comparison of the Gospels in this manner.

Here is one of the things you find when you put the Gospels in parallel columns and study the agreements and differences: Mark is the middle term between Matthew and Luke. What I mean is this: again and again in material that occurs in all three Gospels (material called Triple Tradition) Matthew and Mark have agreements in common and Mark and Luke have agreements in common far outweighing the fewer agreements Matthew and Luke have against Mark. In the differences of detail, both Matthew and Luke agree with Mark more than they agree with each other.

Goodacre proposes a way for students to see this for themselves. You can take a synopsis (or harmony or parallel) of the Gospels and work it out for yourself. Find all the Triple Tradition material (it occurs in all three Synoptic Gospels) and use colored pencils to do a survey of agreements and differences. Here is a list of some, not all, of the Triple Tradition material (from Goodacre, pgs 35-36):

• Matt 8:1-4 … Mark 1:40-45 … Luke 5:12-16 . . . . . . . . . . . Leper
• Matt 9:1-8 … Mark 2:1-12 … Luke 5:12-16 . . . . . . . . . . . . Paralytic
• Matt 9:9-13 … Mark 2:13-17… Luke 5:12-16 . . . . . . . . . . Call of Levi/Matthew
• Matt 9:14-17 … Mark 2:18-22 … Luke 5:12-16 . . . . . . . . Fasting, New Wine, Patches
• Matt 12:1-8 … Mark 2:23-28 … Luke 5:12-16 . . . . . . . . . . Grain on Sabbath
• Matt 12:9-14 … Mark 3:1-6 … Luke 5:12-16 . . . . . . . . . . . Man with Withered Hand
• Matt 10:1-4 … Mark 3:13-19 … Luke 5:12-16 . . . . . . . . . . The Twelve
• Matt 12:46-50 … Mark 3:31-35 … Luke 5:12-16 . . . . . . . . Mother and brothers
• Matt 13:1-23 … Mark 4:1-20… Luke 5:12-16 . . . . . . . . . . Sower Parable
• Matt 8:23-27 … Mark 4:35-41 … Luke 5:12-16 . . . . . . . . Calming Storm
• Matt 8:28-34 … Mark 5:1-20 … Luke 5:12-16 . . . . . . . . . Gerasene Demoniac
• Matt 9:18-26 … Mark 5:21-43 … Luke 5:12-16 . . . . . . . . Jairus, Bleeding Woman
• Matt 14:13-21 … Mark 6:30-44 … Luke 5:12-16 . . . . . . Feeding Five Thousand
• Matt 16:13-20 … Mark 8:27-30… Luke 5:12-16 . . . . . . . Peter’s Confession
• Matt 17:1-8 … Mark 9:2-8 … Luke 5:12-16 . . . . . . . . . . . Transfiguration
• Matt 17:14-20 … Mark 9:14-29 … Luke 5:12-16 . . . . . . . Epilectic Boy
• Matt 19:13-15 … Mark 10:13-16 … Luke 18:15-17 . . . . . . . Little Children
• Matt 19:16-30 … Mark 10:17-31… Luke 18:18-30 . . . . . . Rich Young Ruler
• Matt 20:29-34 … Mark 10:46-52 … Luke 18:35-43 . . . .Blind Bartimaeus
• Matt 21:1-9 … Mark 11:1-10… Luke 19:28-38 . . . . . . . . . Triumphal Entry
• Matt chs. 21-28 … Mark chs. 11-16 … Luke chs. 20-24 Passion Narratives

So here is Goodacre’s coloring project and here are the results you will get. Color words found only in Matthew blue. Words found only in Mark color red. Words unique to Luke should be yellow. Words shared only by Matthew and Mark would be purple. Words shared only by Matthew and Luke would be green. Words shared only by Mark and Luke would be orange. Finally, words found in all three will be brown.

Here is what you will find. There will be a lot of brown, some purple, some orange, but very little green. In other words, agreements between Matthew and Luke against Mark are rare. This shows that Mark is the middle term between the three. What does Goodacre mean by “middle term”? This can be illustrated as below:

TRIPLE TRADITION MATERIAL AGREEMENTS

. . . MATTHEW . . . MARK . . . LUKE . . .

. . . MATTHEW . . . MARK

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .MARK . . . LUKE

He means that Matthew used Mark as a source and also Luke used Mark as a source. If we propose that Mark was first and that both Matthew and Luke read Mark, it explains the fact that Matthew agrees more with Mark against Luke than with Luke against Mark. It explains how Luke agrees more with Mark against Matthew than with Matthew against Mark.

How we can tell that neither Matthew nor Luke was first: If Matthew was the first Gospel and if Mark and Luke both knew Matthew, then Matthew would be the middle term. If Luke was first, it would be the middle term. Mark is what Matthew and Luke have most in common. Therefore Mark was first.

More evidence: Another phenomenon in the Gospels is that there is a good body of material found in Matthew and Mark, but not Luke, and a good amount found in Mark and Luke, but not Matthew. And the Matthew-Mark material and Mark-Luke material follows the order of guess which Gospel? Mark. Again we see Mark as the middle term. Another line of evidence is the tendency of Mark to make statements in raw, unfiltered, almost scandalous terms. Whenever Mark describes Yeshua in a manner than might be controversial, we sometimes find that Matthew and Luke soften the description. If Mark makes the disciples look bad, we find that Matthew and Luke make them look less bad. Then there is the matter of material Mark does not include, things like the Lord’s Prayer and the various teachings that make up Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount and Luke’s Sermon on the Plain. Does it make sense, if Mark came later, that he would omit this material? In choosing what to include and what to leave out of a written Gospel (the community knew many more sayings and deeds of Yeshua than the Gospels record) why would Mark leave out the Lord’s Prayer once it was part of the Synoptic Gospel tradition? He would not be likely to. More likely, Mark was written before Matthew.

In short, the evidence stacks up that Mark is what Matthew and Luke have most in common and that Mark was the earliest to be written and circulated.

Q is an imagined document which scholars think they see in the background of Yeshua-sayings that are shared only by Matthew and Luke (they don’t occur in Mark).

The Q theory is that Matthew and Luke each independently used Mark and this lost source of sayings which scholars call Q. Let me break that down. The theory is that Matthew did not know Luke and Luke did not know Matthew. The sources they had included Mark and Q (and both had special sources either written or oral besides Mark and Q as well).

To better understand this, think of a harmony of the gospels, which puts the gospels in columns. Triple Tradition materials is stories and sayings that occur in all 3 (Mt-Mk-Lk). Double Tradition material usually occurs in Mt-Lk (though sometimes Mk-Lk and Mt-Mk).

Most of this Double Tradition material (the Mt-Lk stuff) consists of sayings. Why are these sayings in both Matthew and Luke, but not in Mark? The answer in Q theory is that they had a source of sayings called Q. The Q theory is a good theory. It has some support. It seems logical.

Note: I am avoiding a long post on details, including the 7 arguments used to support Q (four negative and three positive). For a thorough discussion, read Goodacre.

Now, here is Goodacre’s basic case:

#1, Another theory of gospel origins works better than the Q theory.

#2, The Farrer theory (supported by Goulder and Goodacre): Luke used Matthew and Mark plus other sources.

#3, In the Farrer-Goulder-Goodacre theory, the Double Tradition material is Luke using Matthew.

#4, Many have doubted this because Luke takes things Matthew gathers into long discourses (Sermon on the Mount) and spreads them out all over his gospel (many of the Sermon on the Mount sayings are in Luke, but spread all over). — Goodacre says this is Luke’s literary artistry at work. He simply has a different idea about how to use the sayings than Matthew and is creatively spreading them into more specific contexts instead of long sermons.

#5, Why doesn’t Luke use some things in Matthew (most famous: the Magi)? The answer, which can be backed up by the larger context: Luke doesn’t like certain things. Magi are one of them (see Acts 8:9 and following). Luke chooses the “Luke-pleasing elements” only.

#6, Sometimes Luke’s version of a saying appears more “primitive” (closer to what scholars imagine might be the original form of Yeshua’s words) than Matthew’s. Goodacre says this is because Luke (as did all the others) had a large body of oral tradition to work with and may have preferred a different version than Matthew.

#7, Some have argued for Q by noting that Luke sometimes lacks additions or “corrections” in language Matthew has made. Goodacre: sometimes Luke preferred Mark over Matthew.

NO WORRIES: If this sounds like Greek to you or boring, don’t sweat it. This is just extra fodder for the imagination and for understanding gospel origins.

BENEFIT: If the Q theory is wrong, and if we can say that Luke used Matthew and Mark as well as other sources, it changes the way we look at several things. We can read Matthew as an attempted improvement on Mark and Luke as an attempted improvement on both (see Luke 1:1-3). Also, the value of oral tradition (eyewitness testimony) is higher if we dispense with Q (which was supposedly a written source which constrained Mt and Lk). The creativity of Matthew and even more so Luke is better appreciated when Q is regarded as a myth.

I also recently finished my second year of reading through and commenting on a daily portion of Luke in my Daily D’var email list (email me at yeshuaincontext at gmail if you’d like to be on the Daily D’var email list).

Luke’s gospel has a lot of material not in Matthew and Mark (this is a well-known fact). Luke is the second-most unique of the four gospels (John takes the prize, of course). Have you ever thought of the things you might not know if you didn’t have Luke’s gospel? And, if with me you believe that Luke is one of the last two to be written (perhaps at the same time or a little before John), consider that, in some sense, these stories almost did not survive and make it to posterity. Here is a rundown and the unique material in Luke is powerful and some of the best-known material in the life of Yeshua:

The Best Known and Loved Parables are Often in Luke

• The Prodigal Son, Lk 15:11-32 – Perhaps the best-loved parable of Yeshua.
• The Good Samaritan, Lk 10:29-37 – Maybe a close second to the Prodigal Son.
• The Rich Man and Lazarus, 16:19-31 – Well known, rarely applied.
• The Pharisee and the Tax Collector, Lk 18:9-14 – Don’t judge the Pharisee or you become him.
• The Rich Fool, Lk 12:13-21 – Also rarely applied.
• The Unjust Judge, 18:1-8 – It’s a long wait for Yeshua’s return.
• The Friend at Midnight, Lk 11:5-8 – Marginalized people must have wondered if God was listening.
• The Fig Tree, Lk 13:6-9 – In mercy the Gardener has left it a little time.
• The Unrighteous Steward, Lk 16:1-9 – Use possessions to make friends.
• The Humble Servant, Lk 17:7-10 – The Master is great and the disciple does his or her duty.
• The Lost Coin, Lk 15:8-10 – The Father searches and rejoices in finding.

Healings Only in Luke

• The Widow of Nain’s Son, Lk 7:11-17
• The Bent Woman, Lk 13:10-17
• The Man with Dropsy (Edema), Lk 14:1-6
• Ten Lepers, Lk 17:11-19

Stories Only in Luke

• Infancy Narratives of Yeshua, Lk 1-2 (very little overlap with Matthew)
• Yeshua in the Temple as a Boy, Lk 2:41-52
• Genealogy of Yeshua, Lk 3:23-38 (very little overlap with Matthew)
• Women disciples, Lk 8:1-3
• Yeshua in the Samaritan Villages, Lk 9:51-56
• Martha and Mary, Lk 10:38-42
• Tower of Siloam, Lk 13:1-5
• Zaccheus, Lk 19:1-10
• Trial before Herod, Lk 23:6-12
• Road to Emmaus, Lk 24:13-35
• Post-Resurrection Appearance in Jerusalem, Lk 24:36-49

Other Sayings (non-Parables) Only in Luke

• Names written in heaven, Lk 10:17-20
• Revealed to babes and all things handed over to the Son, Lk 10:21-22
• Blessed are they who hear and keep the word, Lk 11:27-28
• Invitations to Feasts and Banquets, Lk 14:7-14
• Two Swords, Lk 22:35-38