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The Synoptic Gospels

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.

Subject: Synoptic Gospels

The Cambridge Companion to the Gospels by Stephen C. Barton, ed.

“The four gospels are a central part of the Christian canon of scripture. In the faith of Christians, this canon constitutes a life-giving witness to who God is and what it means to be truly human. This volume treats the gospels not just as historical sources, but also as crucial testimony to the life of God made known in Jesus Christ. This approach helps to overcome the sometimes damaging split between critical gospel study and questions of theology, ethics and the life of faith. The essays are by acknowledged experts in a range of theological disciplines. The first section considers what are appropriate ways of reading the gospels given the kinds of texts they are. The second, central section covers the contents of the gospels. The third section looks at the impact of the gospels in church and society across history and up to the present day.” – Cambridge University Press

The Gospel of Matthew in Its Roman Imperial Context by John Riches and David C. Sim, eds.

“In what sense does Matthew’s Gospel reflect the colonial situation in which the community found itself after the fall of Jerusalem and the subsequent humiliation of Jews across the Roman Empire? To what extent was Matthew seeking to oppose Rome’s claims to authority and sovereignty over the whole world, to set up alternative systems of power and society, to forge new senses of identity? If Matthew’s community felt itself to be living on the margins of society, where did it see the centre as lying? In Judaism or in Rome? And how did Matthew’s approach to such problems compare with that of Jews who were not followers of Jesus Christ and with that of others, Jews and Gentiles, who were followers?” – T&T Clark

The Gospel to the Romans: The Setting and Rhetoric of Mark’s Gospel by Brian Incigneri

“This book proposes that Mark’s Gospel was written in Rome in late 71 after the return of the feared Titus who had recently destroyed the Jerusalem Temple. Recognising that the use of emotional appeals was a prime contemporary rhetorical tool, it shows the Gospel to be an emotionally-charged text aimed at readers traumatised by years of persecution, fear of arrest and intra-community tensions over the forgiveness of those who had failed. It examines the political, social and religious situation and shows that the Gospel contains allusions to many recent events of concern to Christians. Mark stirs their fears and painful memories to move them to a new resolve, providing a model for them — Jesus, the first martyr for the gospel.” – Brill

The Message of the Sermon on the Mount by John Stott

“The followers of Jesus are to be different,” writes John Stott, “different from both the nominal church and the secular world, different from both the religious and the irreligious. The Sermon on the Mount is the most complete delineation anywhere in the New Testament of the Christian counter-culture.” In the Sermon on the Mount, the “nearest thing to a manifesto” that Jesus ever uttered, we find Jesus’ own description of what he wanted his followers to be and do. In this Bible Speaks Today volume, Stott guides readers through Jesus’ well-known but often poorly understood teachings in Matthew 5 through 7. He identifies key themes in the Sermon that demonstrate its ongoing relevance to believers: a Christian’s character, influence, righteousness, piety, ambition, relationships, and commitment. Leading us to listen carefully to the meaning of each verse in its context, Stott also confronts the challenges this text raises for today’s Christians and draws out practical applications. A seven-session study guide at the end of the book will help you more deeply ponder the message of the Sermon on the Mount and how it speaks to your life. If the church truly lived by the standards and values Jesus set forth in this passage, Stott declares, it would be the authentic alternative society that he always intended it to be–showing a dark world what human life looks like under the gracious rule of God.” – InterVarsity Press

The Paradox of Salvation: Luke’s Theology of the Cross by Peter Doble

“This study refutes the allegation that the author of Luke–Acts showed no systematic thought about the significance of Jesus’s death, that is, he has no theologia crucis. Peter Doble focuses sharply on the Gospel’s death scene and explores those features which appear in Luke alone, then extends the results into the longer account of Jesus’s final days in Jerusalem. In the final section Doble demonstrates how specific words and patterns from Wisdom shape and fill Luke’s retelling of the story of Jesus’s entrapment, trials and death. Luke wanted his readers to understand that what had happened to Jesus was not a humiliating rejection but in accord with scripture’s presentation of God’s plan for salvation, and he modelled traditional material about Jesus’s road to the crucifixion around an explanatory model which he drew from Wisdom.” – Cambridge University Press

The Plan of God in Luke-Acts by John T. Squires

“This study examines one significant theological theme in Luke-Acts, that of ‘The plan of God’. It traces the way this theme is developed throughout Luke-Acts, both through direct statements by the writer and through various associated means such as divine appearances, signs and wonders, the fulfilment of prophecy, and indications of fate as of necessity. Dr Squires locates Luke’s use of this theme in the context of the history-writing of the Hellenistic period, noting numerous passages in those works which illumine Luke’s theological purposes. His book shows how the notion of the plan of God is used by Luke as he writes to confirm his readers’ faith, encouraging them to bear witness to this faith, and equipping them for the task of defending it.” – Cambridge University Press

The Preface to Luke’s Gospel: Literary Convention and Social Context in Luke 1.1–4 and Acts 1.1 by Loveday Alexander

“Luke’s two-volume work begins with a formal preface unlike anything else in the New Testament, and it has long been academic orthodoxy that Luke’s choice of style, vocabulary, and content in this short passage reveal a desire to present his work to contemporary readers as ‘History’ in the great tradition of Thucydides and Polybius. This study challenges that assumption: far from aping the classical historians, Dr Alexander argues, Luke was simply introducing his book in a style that would have been familiar to readers of the scientific and technical manuals which proliferated in the hellenistic world. The book contains a detailed study of these Greek ‘scientific’ prefaces as well as a word-by-word commentary on the Lucan texts. In her concluding chapters, Alexander seeks to explore the consequences of this alignment both for the literary genre of Luke-Acts (is it meant to be read as ‘history’?) and for the social background of the author and the book’s first readers.” – Cambridge University Pres

The Purpose of Mark’s Gospel: An Early Christian Response to Roman Imperial Propaganda by Adam Winn

“In this book, Adam Winn addresses the long debated question of the purpose of Mark’s gospel. After placing the composition of Mark in Rome at a time shortly after the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, he seeks to reconstruct the historical situation facing both the Markan evangelist and his community. This reconstruction focuses on the rise of the new Roman Emperor Vespasian and the aftermath of the Jewish Revolt in Rome.” – Mohr Siebeck

The Theology of the Gospel of Luke by Joel B. Green

“The Gospel of Luke, often mined for information about the life of Jesus, is also one of the earliest Christian examples of narrative theology. Luke goes to great lengths to ground the work of Jesus in the continuing story of God’s redemptive plan, and his emphasis on the ongoing character of that story challenges his audience to discern the purpose of God and order their lives around it. This exploration of the way in which he accomplishes his theological task in the first century is both informative and illuminating for contemporary readers.” – Cambridge University Press

The Theology of the Gospel of Mark by W. R. Telford

“This 1999 book presents the reader with a comprehensive view of the theology underlying the first narrative account of the life of Jesus. In Chapter 1 Dr Telford introduces the background of the text and its general message, attempting briefly to place the Gospel (and therefore its theology) in its historical setting. In the second chapter, he describes and analyses the Gospel’s theology, again from an historical perspective and with particular regard to its original context. In the third chapter, Telford goes on to examine the Gospel in relation to other relevant writings of the New Testament. Briefly reviewing this larger corpus and highlighting parallels and contrasts, where appropriate, he seeks to locate the Gospel’s theology in its wider canonical context. The fourth and final chapter ranges even further afield, commenting on the Gospel’s history of interpretation and on its significance in the contemporary context.” – Cambridge University Press

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