It is believed that there are four sources hypothesis for the synoptic gospels namely, the triple tradition, the double tradition, Matthew...
It is
believed that there are four sources hypothesis for the synoptic gospels
namely, the triple tradition, the double tradition, Matthew specific and Luke
specific. They are discussed below.
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| Figure
1 Synoptic Gospels Sources |
1.
Triple Tradition (Source is Mark)
It is
widely believed that the book of Mark was the first to be written of the three
gospels and that the other two relied on the writings of Mark which was
believed to have been written according to the direct instruction from Peter as
Mark was a disciple of Peter.
This
believe is summed up under the Triple Tradition.
For
all the writings common to all the three synoptic gospel, Mark is believed to
be the source as depicted in the diagram below;
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| Figure
2 Triple & Double Tradition |
Mark
is the shortest gospel. Mark has 661 verses; 601 are found in Matthew or in
Luke; Markan words duplicated in Matthew and Luke amount to 97% and 88%
respectively.
In the
argument to support the fact that Mark would have been used by Matthew and Luke
for their writings, the followings were deduced:
o
It is argued that, it is more logical to see
the progression of the writings in Matthew and Luke as related to Mark than to
see it otherwise.
o
There were some phrases that were actively used
in the book Mark but are not found in Matthew and Luke (Mark 1:32-4 cf. Matt
8:16-7, Lk 4:40-1)
o
There are some passages in the book of Mark
that didn’t portray Jesus well, these passages could been see to have been
modified in Matthew and Luke; these could be seen as a deliberate amendment to
erase any doubt or controversy that such could generate (Mark 3:21 cf. Matt.
12:23-4; Mk 6:5 cf. Matt. 14:35-6, Lk. 9:12ff)
o
If Mark had copied Matthew and Luke, he would
not have let out the sermon on the mount, and expanded Matthew with details
that are quite unimportant (Mark 1:29-31 cf. Matt. 8:14-15; Mark 5:1-20 cf.
Matt 8:28-34).
2.
Double Tradition (Source is Quelle)
There
are 235 verses which are unique to Matthew and Luke. It is argued that both
Matthew and Luke derived the verses from the same source called Q. Q stands for
Quelle which is used to designate the part of Matthew and Luke that are similar
but which are not found in the book of Mark. Example of the passages common to
both Matthew and Luke but not found in Mark are Preaching of John the Baptist
(Mat. 3:7-10 cf. Lk 3:7-9) and the temptation (Mat. 4:1-10 cf. Lk. 4:1-12)
3.
Single Tradition – Unique to Matthew (denoted as M)
There
are some writings in the synoptic gospels that are specific to Matthew alone
and not found in any other gospel and Matthew is believed to be the author of
such
4.
Single Tradition – Unique to Luke (denoted as L)
There
are some writings in the synoptic gospels that are specific to Luke alone and
not found in any other gospel and Luke is found to the author of such
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