Thanks for the answers thus far. I did not know that the first three Gospels were called the Synoptic Gospels. That at least gives me a “search term” to use as a starting point to further my research.
With respect to these Synoptic Gospels, was there one author that the other two copied/used as a source reference?
Many scholars think it possible. There are quite a number of theories explaining this so-called Synoptic Problem:
Augustinian Hypothesis: The traditional view, it proposes that Matthew wrote first, followed by Mark who abbreviated Matthew, followed by Luke who used the two gospels. This theory was named after St. Augustine, the first author to give a detailed scholarly textual analysis of the three texts’ interdependence, and to articulate a theory for the express purpose of explaining this fact.
Two-source Hypothesis: This hypothesis holds that Mark wrote first, and that Matthew and Luke were based on Mark and Q. This was first articulated in 1838 by Christian Hermann Weisse, but it did not gain wide acceptance among German critics until Heinrich Julius Holtzmann endorsed it in 1863. The Two-Source Hypothesis crossed the channel into England in the 1880s primarily due to the efforts of William Sanday, culminating in Burnet Hillman Streeter’s definitive statement of the case. Streeter later proposed two more additional sources, which led to the development of the Four Document Hypothesis, summarized below.
Four Document Hypothesis: Posits that there were at least
four sources to Matthew and Luke: Mark, Q, as well as two other sources dubbed
M and
L. In addition to Mark and the Antiochian Q, the author of the canonical Matthew made use of M, which has a Judaistic character (explaining the rather Jewish tone of Matthew).
The gospel of Luke, meanwhile, developed in two phases. Proto-Luke was originally derived from Q and L (L is here connected with Caesarea). In addition to proto-Luke, canonical Luke made use of material from Mark. The 4DH was first proposed in 1924 by Streeter in an attempt to refine the Two Document Hypothesis based on the possibility of a Jewish M source (sometimes identified as the elusive
Gospel of the Hebrews).
Griesbach-Farmer Hypothesis: Theorizes that Matthew wrote first, followed by Luke who made use of Matthew’s material, with Mark at the last, producing a abdriged version of Matthew and Luke. By the 18th century the problems with the Augustinian Hypothesis led textual critic Johann Jakob Griesbach to put forward this theory. This hypothesis first caught on among German Protestant Biblical scholars before the advent of the 2HS (Catholic scholars of that period tended to favor the Augustinian Hypothesis). Griesbach’s theory was revived and revised in 1965 by an American scholar, William R. Farmer. Twinc’s proposed ordering of the Gospels follows the Griesbach-Farmer scenario.
Farrer Hypothesis: Thinks that Mark wrote first, followed by Matthew who expanded Mark, followed by Luke who made use of Mark and Matthew. This theory was developed in 1955 by a British scholar, A. M. Farrer, who thought that one could dispense with the lost, hypothetical document/collection called
Q.
Q by arguing that Luke revised both Mark and Matthew. Just as the Griesbach-Farmer scenario is the chief rival of the Two-source Hypothesis among American scholars who do not hold the Two-source Hypothesis, this theory is currently more popular among British opponents of the 2HS.
