Introduction 28
The Stage of Written Sources: Source Criticism (the Synoptic Problem)
Introduction
The oral stage of the development of the Synoptic Gospels, which we examined in the last section, probably also included some written traditions about Jesus’ life and teachings. Some of the apostles may have taken notes on Jesus’ teachings and activities during the ministry itself, and they and other eyewitnesses probably accelerated that process after the resurrection. But it is probable that a predominantly oral period of transmission only eventually gave way to a period during which more substantial bodies of written tradition began to be produced, in a procedure that led eventually to the canonical Gospels. Source criticism is devoted to the investigation of this written stage in the production of the Gospels. It asks, and seeks to answer, this question: What written sources, if any, did the evangelists use in compiling their gospels?
The question is of particular interest to the historian of the early Christian movement, and one that any student of the Synoptic Gospels is bound to ask. For there are startling similarities, both in general outline and in particular wording, among the Synoptic Gospels. Consider the example in table 2 from the account of the healing of a paralytic.
Table 2
Synoptic Parallels: The Healing of a Paralytic
Matthew 9:6
Mark 2:10-11
Luke 5:24
“But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. . . Then he said to the paralytic, “Get up, take your mat and go home.”
“But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. . . .” He said to the paralytic, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.”
“But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. . .
He said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.”
Not only is the wording almost exact (as is true in the Greek original), but each of the three evangelists inserts an abrupt break in Jesus’ words at the same point. Such duplication of unusual or awkward constructions occurs at other places, along with passages in which two or three of the evangelists use precisely the same words, in the same order, over several lines of text. In table 3 note, for instance, how Matthew and Luke use almost exactly the same words to record Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem. 17The student of the Gospels naturally wants to know how we can account for so exact a similarity in wording.
Table 3
Synoptic Parallels: Jesus’ Lament over Jerusalem
Matthew 23:37—39
Luke 13:34-35
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”
But what makes the synoptic problem particularly knotty is the fact that, alongside such exact agreements, there are so many puzzling differences. In the incident cited in table 2, for instance, we note that Matthew omits the "I tell you” found in both Mark and Luke. And in the story from which the extract in table 3 is taken, Matthew omits the part about the paralyzed man’s friends opening a hole in the roof in order to let his mat down in front of Jesus.
This combination of agreement and disagreement extends to the larger structure of the Gospels as well. Consider the list of events in , table 4 which follows Mark’s order. (Any place where one Gospel has deviated from the other two in order of events is indicated with bold type). We find here, though not perhaps in the same proportion, the kinds of agreements and disagreements that recur throughout the Synoptic Gospels. All three roughly follow the same order of events, even when there is no clear chronological or historical reason to do so. Each evangelist, however, omits material found in the other two, each contains unique incidents, and some of the events that are found in one or both of the others are put in a different order.
Table 4
Order of Events in the Synoptics
Pericope
Matthew
Mark
Luke
Jesus and Beelzebub
12:22-37
3:20-30
11:14-28
The Sign of Jonah Jesus’ mother and brothers
12:38-45
—
11:29-32
12:46-50
3:31-35
8:19-21
Parable of the Sower
13:1-9
4:1-9
8:4-8
The Reason for Parables
13:10-17
4:10-12
8:9-10
Interpretation of Parable of the Sower
13:18-23
4:13-20
8:11-15
Parable of the Weeds
13:24-30
—·
—
A Lamp on a Stand
—
4:21-25
8:16-18
Parable of the Seed growing secretly
—
4:26-29
—
Parable of the Mustard Seed
13:31-32
4:30-34
—
Parable of the Yeast
13:33
—
—
Jesus’ Speaking in Parables
13:34-35
—
—
Interpretation of Parable of the Weeds
13:36-43
—
—
Parable of Hidden Treasure
13:44
—
—
Parable of the Pearl
13:45-46
—
—
Parable of the Net
13:47-50
—
—
The Householder
13:51-52
—
—
The Stilling of the Storm
8:18, 23-27
4:35-41
8:22-25
Healing of Gerasene Demoniac
8:28-34
5:1-20
8:26-39
Raising of Jairus’s Daughter/ Healing of a Woman
9:18-26
5:21-43
8:40-56
Rejection at Nazareth
13:53-58
6:1-6a
4:16-30
Sending out of the Twelve
10:1-15
6:6b-13
9:1-6
Beheading of John the Baptist
14:1-12
6:14-29
[9:7-9]
Feeding of the Five Thousand
14:13-21
6:30-44
9:10-17
Walking on the Water
14:22-36
6:45-56
—
Note: Bold type indicates placcs where Matthew and Luke deviate from the order of events followed in Mark. A dash indicates that the incident does not appear in the gospel.
The question behind the synoptic problem, then, may be reformulated in light of these data: What hypothesis best accounts for the combination of exact agreement and wide divergence that characterizes the first three gospels?