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The "synoptic problem" is the question of the specific literary relationship among the three synoptic gospels—that is, the question as to the source or sources upon which each synoptic gospel depended when it was written. The texts of the three synoptic gospels often agree very closely in wording and order, both in quotations and in narration.
John starts with an eternal overview of Jesus the Logos and goes on to describe many things with a "higher" christology than the other three (synoptic) gospels; it represents Jesus's Ascension and Christ's divine nature. This symbolizes that Christians should look on eternity without flinching as they journey towards their goal of union with God.
In the 5th century, Augustine of Hippo wrote extensively on the subject in his book Harmony of the Gospels. [27] Augustine viewed the variations in the gospel accounts in terms of the different focuses of the authors on Jesus: Matthew on royalty, Mark on humanity, Luke on priesthood and John on divinity.
For centuries, biblical scholars followed the Augustinian hypothesis: that the Gospel of Matthew was the first to be written, Mark used Matthew in the writing of his, and Luke followed both Matthew and Mark in his (the Gospel of John is quite different from the other three, which because of their similarity are called the Synoptic Gospels).
[23] Charles H. Talbert agrees that the gospels should be grouped with the Graeco-Roman biographies, but adds that such biographies included an element of mythology, and that the synoptic gospels do too. [24] E. P. Sanders writes, "these Gospels were written with the intention of glorifying Jesus and are not strictly biographical in nature."
Gospels formed by combining proto-gospels, written collections, and still-current oral tradition. Mark is generally agreed to be the first gospel; [ 22 ] it uses a variety of sources, including conflict stories (Mark 2:1–3:6), apocalyptic discourse (4:1–35), and collections of sayings, although not the sayings gospel known as the Gospel of ...
The two-gospel hypothesis or Griesbach hypothesis is that the Gospel of Matthew was written before the Gospel of Luke, and that both were written earlier than the Gospel of Mark. [1] It is a proposed solution to the synoptic problem, which concerns the pattern of similarities and differences between the three Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
The New Testament includes four canonical gospels, (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) but there are many gospels not included in the biblical canon. [3] These additional gospels are referred to as either New Testament apocrypha or pseudepigrapha. [4] [5] Some of these texts have impacted Christian traditions, including many forms of iconography.