In Biblical studies, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are often grouped together as the Synoptic Gospels, or simply the Synoptics. This designation reflects the close relationship they share, narrating many common stories about Jesus. Scholars have noted such similarities that some suggest the existence of a shared source document, referred to as “Q” (from the German word Quelle, meaning “source”), or propose that the Gospels may be interdependent for their content.
This LibGuide aims to provide researchers with key resources to deepen their understanding of the Synoptic Gospels, as well as explore the Synoptic Problem. For students seeking commentaries on each individual Gospel, please visit the New Testament Commentaries LibGuide.
You can view all Synoptic Gospels Resources, or use the search or click the buttons above to view General Synoptic Gospels as a whole or view specific books on each individual Gospel.
Note: This is only a portion of the Seminary Bookshelf’s resources on these topics. Use the search to access all available materials.
“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.” – Oxford University Press
“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
“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
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.” – University Press of America
“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 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
“‘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 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.” – Cambridge University Press
“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
“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.” – Rowman & Littlefield
Seminary Bookshelf Director [email protected]
Webmaster Support [email protected]
© The Digital Theological Library.
