Tuesday, September 17, 2013

The Synoptic Problem (extra credit)

Please take a look a this online Gospel synopsis here.  This site allows you to easily scroll through Matthew, Mark, or Luke and find the parallel passages in the other gospels.  If you clicking on the purple (Matthew), blue (Mark), or green (Luke) book icon beside the section heading, the appropriate column will automatically scroll to the parallel passage.

Read a portion of the Gospel of Mark and a parallel passage in the Gospel of Matthew, e.g., the "plucking the grain" story in Matthew 12:1-8 and Mark 2:23-28 or the "house divided" story in Matthew 12:25-27 and Mark 3:23-30.

As your "comment," note which version of the passage (if either) seems to you to be most likely the original version?  In this passage does it look like Matthew is dependent on Mark, the Mark is dependent on Matthew, or that the the two gospels are giving independent accounts?  Explain your thinking.  


3 comments:

  1. After reading the story of the House Divided, it seems to me that Mark came first. The story in his gospel seems to be written, with no body in mind; he is simply telling the story. Matthew on the other hand seems as if he read the story somewhere, possibly from Mark. Since Matthew’s writing style is pointed to the Jews, it seems he took the story and rewrote it a way that makes it aims towards Jews. Without having any hard evidence to go on; their writing styles are the only things that can point out who wrote when. From how similar the story is written in the two different gospels, it looks like Mark wrote his account before Matthew did; meaning in this case one can make the argument that Matthew is dependent upon Mark. -Kelly Longden

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  2. After reading the story of the plucking of the grain on the Sabbath Day, I feel that Mark came first. When reading it seems that Mark put in more specifics as in the high priest's name at the time of the event. In this sense I feel that Matthew in writing it failed to put in some detail that Mark had or rather maybe found the detail not needed for the story so he simply left it out. Also it seems that Matthew may have redirected some of the wording to add to other parts of the story. I feel however that Matthew is dependent on Mark because of the left out detail that he just took from Mark story and expanded on what he wanted to.
    -Dylan Mickelson

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  3. After reading the House Divided story in both Matthew and Mark, it doesn't seem to me like one is based off of the other. Reading these accounts seems like they were written separately. The two authors have some of the same story lines, but Matthew tells a lot more. It seems like Mark's telling just got straight to the point.
    -Claire DeMilia

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