1. The Gospels
Four pictures of Jesus

2. Genre: What Is a Gospel? 1. “gospel” = early Christian preaching
2. “gospel” = written life of Jesus
Written like ancient biography
Portrays “the essential character of the person”
Encourages emulation of the person
Has little concern for chronology
Includes multiple genres
Influenced by Jewish literature
“Fictive” (story-like) style of narration
Overtly evangelistic (“that you may believe”)

3. Types of Material in Gospels
Parables (box 4.3)
Figurative stories that convey spiritual truth
Miracle stories (box 4.4)
Demonstrations of exceptional “power” or “signs”
Pronouncement stories (box 4.5)
Anecdote that preserves “the memory of something Jesus said”
Individual sayings (box 4.6)
Passion and resurrection narratives

4. The Synoptic Puzzle Synoptic = “seeing together”
Matthew, Luke, and Mark appear to be seeing Jesus together—from a similar view
Overlapping material
Parallel structures, style, perspectives, and tone
Also each have unique material
Matthew contains 90% of material in Mark but is twice as long
This raises the question:
How are these three Gospels related?

5. The Synoptic Puzzle (Majority) Two-source Hypothesis
Mark written first
Matthew and Luke use Mark as a written source
Matthew and Luke use a second (hypothetical) source of Jesus’ sayings = Q
Matthew and Luke, independently, used their own oral sources to complement written sources
(M and L)

6. The Synoptic Puzzle (Minority) Two-Gospel Hypothesis
Matthew wrote first
Luke used Matthew
Mark later condensed Matthew and Luke into one writing