THE SYNOPTIC PROBLEM

What are we talking about when we talk about the
Synoptic Problem? The word "synoptic" means

"seeing together," and it refers to the Gospel of
Matthew, the Gospel of Mark, and the Gospel of Luke.
These three Gospels are known as the Synoptic
Gospels. The word "Problem" in its academic context
basically means puzzle: what literary relationship

exists among these three accounts?

There are a lot of possible answers, and competent
scholars have reached very different conclusions.
Maybe the apostles, in the early years of the Christian

church, composed a "Proto-Gospel" and each
Evangelist used that independently. Or maybe Matthew

wrote his account first (as early traditions say) and Mark
and Luke both used the Gospel of Matthew as a source.

Or Mark wrote first, and Matthew and Luke both used

the Gospel of Mark as well as other sources.

Here, in the form of a diagram, is my approach to

the Synoptic Problem.

Shortly after Jesus' ministry was done, the apostles organized their remembrances about Jesus. Jesus' miracles, His final
week in Jerusalem, and His death and resurrection were major focuses of these orally transmitted remembrances. Matthew
wrote down some of Jesus' most important teachings in Aramaic, and thus made a piece of source-material called the
"Logia." The Logia was then translated into Greek.

Meanwhile, as Peter spread the Gospel, he incorporated some apostolic traditions into his sermons and lessons, along

with events he personally recollected. His assistant Mark collected Peter's remembrances about Jesus into a mutating

text known as Proto-Mark, which grew longer as Peter kept on preaching.

Luke obtained a copy of Proto-Mark, and depended on Proto-Mark, and on a Greek translation of the Logia, and on some
unique sources - the testimony of eyewitnesses to some events - when he composed the Gospel of Luke (around A.D. 63).

A definitive text of the Gospel of Mark was released in Rome in about A.D. 66.

Matthew used Proto-Mark, the Gospel of Mark, the Aramaic Logia, and some unique sources when composing the Gospel
of Matthew in A.D. 69-70.

In the solution to the Synoptic Problem, although Luke's Gospel is the first to be shared as a completed work, it was
preceded by both Matthew's Logia and by a form of Proto-Mark.

Here are four webpages (Carlson's page leads to many more materials) about

the Synoptic Problem. These four downloadable books also explore the subject

in detail.