Synoptic means “seen together,” and together we call Mark, Matthew and Luke the synoptic gospels because they substantially agree with each other on the chronology and events of Jesus’s life. Where they tell the same stories about Jesus they do so almost always in the same order and often word for word. How do we explain such striking similarities (and, for that matter, equally striking dissimilarities)? That’s the Synoptic Problem.
This fast, fun and informative session covers:
- questions of gospel authorship: who, when, where, why
- each author’s source material
- the Four Source Hypothesis (the dominant explanation)
- other possible explanations
- the particular theological emphasis of each author
- what’s up with John; why is he so different?
We’ll start at 9:45 in Parlor 2 on September 23. See you there!