1. the Synoptic Gospels

5/20/2018 1. the Synoptic Gospels

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Lesson #1

The Synoptic Gospels


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As we begin our study of the Gospel according to

Mark, we need to place Mark within its proper

literary context as a gospel.

A gospel as a unique literary genre, an account ofthe good news (Greek = euangelion; eu= good,

angelion= message) of the coming kingdom of God

and the redemption of humanity through the life,

death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.


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A gospel is nota biography of a person, although it

does contain biographical information; it is notan

historical account of a person, although it is rooted in

historical time; it is nota fictional account of a

person, although it does include miracles, wondersand a large dose of the supernatural. Rather . . .

a gospel reflects the understanding of who Jesus

Christ is and what he did, in light of a living faith

tradition, guided by the Holy Spirit, 30-60 years after

the events it portrays.


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For the first 30 years of the Church the gospel

spread throughout the Roman Empire by the oral

teaching and preaching of the Apostles and others.

Only in the mid-60s or so was the gospel message

written down. Many written gospel accountsemerged during the first three centuries of the

Christian era, but common usage generally applies

the term to our four canonical gospels: Matthew,

Mark, Luke and John. In this lesson we will explorehow the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and

Luke) came to be written, and we will place Mark

within the synoptic tradition.


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Christianity is arguably thesingle most important force in

shaping the past 2,000 years

of western civilization, and

one may reasonably argue

that Jesus of Nazareth is the

single most influential person

who ever lived.

Yet, what do we really know

about the historical Jesus?


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Desis Mosaic, depicting Christ Pantrocrator (c.1261),

South Gallery, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey.Photography by Ana Maria Vargas


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There is not a single piece of

documentary evidence from the

time of Jesus (4/6 B.C. A.D. 32)to suggest that he ever existed.

Not a birth certificate.

Not a death certificate.

Not a letter.

Not a property record.

Not a record of his trial.

Not a single document with his name

on it.

Nothing.


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Apart from the NewTestamentwritten decades

after Jesus life on this

earththere are only a few

references to him.


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Flavius Josephus, c. A.D. 95

Jewish Antiquities (18.3.3)

About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one

ought to call him a man. For he was one who wrought

surprising feats and was a teacher of such people as accept the

truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks.

He was the Messiah. When Pilate, upon hearing him accused

by men of the highest standing amongst us, had condemnedhim to be crucified, those who had in the first place come to

love him did not give up their affection for him. On the third

day he appeared to them restored to life, for the prophets of

God had prophesied these and countless other marvelous things

about him. And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him,has still to this day not disappeared.


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Flavius Josephus, c. A.D. 95

Jewish Antiquities (18.3.3)

Josephus mentions Jesus again in passing (20.9.1)

when he notes that the High Priest Ananias

summoned the Sanhedrin, the Jewish governing

council . . .

and brought before them the brother of Jesus who was called

Christ, whose name was James, and some others; and when he

had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law,

he delivered them to be stoned . . .[Acts 12 chronicles the result

of this incident].


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Gaius Cornelius Tacitus

Annals (XXV.44.2-8)

A longer account shows up in TacitusAnnals (c. A.D.

116). He recounts the great fire in Rome under Nero

(XXV.44.2-8):

Nero fastened the guilt and afflicted the most exquisite tortureson a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the

populace. Christus, from whom their name had its origin,

suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the

hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilate, and a deadly

superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out, not

only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but also in the city,

where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the

world meet and become popular.


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Pliny the Younger

Letters (10.96)

One of the earliest non-biblical reports about the

Christians comes from Pliny the Younger, governor of

Bithynia (c. 112 A.D.) He isnt quite sure how to deal

with the Christians, so he writes to the emperor

Trajan for advice (Letters10.96). Pliny hadinterrogated a few Christians, and he passes on to

Trajan the information he received:


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Pliny the Younger, cont.

Letters (10.96)

They maintained, moreover, that the amount of their fault orerror had been this, that it was their habit on a fixed day to

assemble before daylight and recite by turns a form of words to

Christ as to a god; and that they bound themselves with an

oath, not for any crime, but not to commit theft or robbery or

adultery, not to break their word, and not to deny a depositwhen demanded. After this was done, it was their custom to

depart, and to meet again to take food, but ordinary, harmless

food . . .. I discovered nothing else than a perverse and

extravagant superstition.


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Lucian of Samosata

Passing of Peregrinus (11-13)

A final account of the Christian movement before the end of

the second century comes from the satirist Lucian of Samosata

(A.D. 120-180). In his Passing of Peregrinushe slams

Peregrinusthe very model of the conman. Among those

duped by Peregrinus was a group of Christians (Peregrinus11-

13):

It was then he learned the wondrous lore of the Christians by

associating with their priests and scribes in Palestine. Andhow else

could it bein a trice he made them all look like children; for he was

prophet, cult leader, head of the synagogue, and everything, all by

himself. He interpreted and explained some of their books, and even

composed many, and they revered him as a god, made use of him as a

lawgiver, and set him down as a protector, next after that other, to be

sure, whom they still worship, the man who was crucified in Palestine

because he introduced this new cult into the world.


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Among Jewish writings, the

Talmud contains only a few

references to Jesus (Babylonian

Talmud, Sanhedrin 43a, b; 103a;

106b; 107b), though later

censors may have removed

others. The ones that do remainare very brief and often veiled.

If we did not know of Jesus from

the New Testament, we would

probably not recognize theallusions to him in the Talmud.


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During the first century after Jesusdeath, the world took little notice

of what it considered to be a minor

Jewish sect. For the most part,Jewish and Hellenistic writers

completely ignored both Jesus and

Christianity.


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After Jesus resurrection he

said to his Apostles:

All power in heaven and onearth has been given to me. Go,

therefore, and make disciples of

all nations, baptizing them in

the name of the Father, and ofthe Son, and of the holy Spirit,

teaching them to observe all

that I have commanded you.

Matthew 28: 18-20

And that isprecisely what

they did.


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1. For three years (A.D. 29-32) Jesus went around all ofGalilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming thegospel of the kingdom and curing every disease andillness among the people (Luke 4: 23).

2. During his 3-year public ministry Jesus gathered manyfollowers, twelve of whom became his inner circle,

hisApostles. They lived with him, traveled with him,studied with him: they were eyewitnesses to hispublic ministry and to his death, burial andresurrection.

3. After his resurrection, Jesus commissioned his innercircle to go and make disciples of all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of theSon, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observeall that I have commanded you (Matthew 28: 19-20).


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3. His Apostles did exactly that, becoming his witnessesin Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and tothe ends of the earth [i.e., throughout the RomanEmpire+ (Acts 1: 8).

4. Jesus Apostlesand other followerstraveledthroughout the Roman Empire telling stories about

him: they repeated his teaching; they told about hisencounters with the religious authorities; and theytold about the miracles God performed through him.

5. Over time, this oral teaching and preaching took on afixed form and shape through repetition: expositoryteaching (e.g., Sermon on the Mount), parables (e.g.,

the Prodigal Son); dialectic (argumentation); healingstories; etc.


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Between A.D. 32 and the

mid 60s, teaching and

preaching about Jesuswas primarily oral, with

occasional letters, such as

those written by Paul.

Faith communitiesformed throughout the

Roman Empire based on

such teaching and

preaching.


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Jerusalem


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Virtually everyone in the

early Christian

communities believedthat Jesus was crucified,

buried and raised, and

that he would return

again, ushering in theKingdom of God.

And they believed this

would happen in theirlifetime.


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By the mid-60s the

eyewitness generation

was drawing to a close

either through natural

death or persecution.

Jesus had not yetreturned, so it became

imperative that the oral

teaching and preaching

about Jesus be writtendown, lest it be distorted

or lost.


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Thus, the written Gospels begin to

emerge in the mid to late 60s.


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There were many gospels

written during the 1stand 2nd

centuries A.D., but the gospelswe shall study are the

canonical gospels: Matthew,

Mark, Luke and John.

These are the gospels the earlychurch believed were written

by the Apostles (Matthew and

John) or someone closely

associated with the Apostles(Mark and Luke)during the

first generation of the Church.


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The Canonical Gospels,

Matthew, Mark, Luke & John

Matthew, a tax collector, left his work to follow Jesus (Matthew

9: 9-13). One of the twelve apostles, he was a Jewprobably a

Leviteand he wrote for a Jewish audience.

John Mark, a young man, was not an apostle, but he was on the

fringes of the group that followed Jesus. He is first mentioned

in Acts 12: 12When this dawned on him *Peter+, he went to

the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where

many people had gathered and were praying. Mark was a

nephew of Barnabas (Colossians 4: 10) and the spiritual son ofPeter (1 Peter 5:13).


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The Canonical Gospels, cont.

Matthew, Mark, Luke & John

Luke was not an apostlenor was he a follower of Jesus during

his three-year public ministry. Rather, Luke, the beloved

physician was a Gentile, a close friend and traveling

companion of Paul during A.D. 50-68. Luke wrote both the

Gospel according to Luke and the Acts of the Apostles.

John was an apostle, the son of Zebedee and Salome, the

brother of James and one of Jesus cousins. Of all the apostles,

John was the most intimate with Jesus. He is the beloved

disciple who rests his head on Jesus shoulder at the lastsupper and the one to whom Jesus entrusts the care of his

mother, Mary, as he is dying on the cross. Traditionally, John is

the author of the Gospel according to John; 1, 2 & 3 John and

Revelation.


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Matthew, Mark and Luke are

called the synoptic Gospels:Syn = together (as in synomyn)

Optic = seen

Matthew, Mark and Luke all draw

from the same oral (and perhaps)

written sources.

John is very different from the

synoptic gospels, drawing on an

entirely different set of traditions.


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The Synoptic GospelsMatthew, Mark & Luke


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New Testament ManuscriptsThe New Testament was written entirely in koineGreek, that is,

the common Greek understood by ordinary people living in

Palestine at the time of Jesus. They understood Greek because

Alexander the Great had conquered the region in 331 B.C.,

establishing a long period of Greek rule that lasted until the

Roman general, Pompey, conquered the area in 63 B.C. A Jew

living in Palestine at the time of Jesus would have understoodGreek, spoken Aramaic as his native language, and been able to

read Hebrew. Most would also have had a working knowledge

of Latin, since they were living under Roman rule.

Although the events in the New Testament happen in the first

century A.D., the manuscripts that record those events datefrom much later. Manuscripts of the New Testament are

divided into four types: papyri, uncials, minuscules, and

lectionaries.


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Example of a Papyrus Manuscript

This is the oldest existing manuscript of the new Testament,

a fragment of the Gospel according to John, A.D. 125 (John 18: 31-34; 37-38).

John Rylands Library, Manchester, England.


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Example of an Uncial Manuscript

Codex Sinaiticus, perhaps the most important of the New Testament

manuscripts. Dating from the 4thcentury, it contains part of the Old Testament

and all of the New Testament. British Library, London.


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Example of a Miniscule Manuscript

This is a parchment manuscript from the 10thcentury containing the Acts of the

Apostles, and the general and Pauline letters (Philemon 10-25 is shown above).

Mt. Athos, Greece.


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Example of a Lectionary

This is a parchment codex containing a gospel lectionary dated A.D. 991. It is

carefully written with elaborate decorative letters in yellow, blue, green and

scarlet. The text is John 19: 10-16 and Matthew 27: 3-5. Vatican Library.


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So, how do you know

that the Gospelaccording to Mark that

you have in your

Catholic Study Bible is

what Mark actuallywrote, given that the

earliest manuscripts of

Mark are 300-400 years

older than the events

they portray?


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That is the job of textual criticism:

A textual critic reconstructs

ancient texts based upon themanuscripts that do exist.

Presently there are:

Over 5,800 complete or fragmented

Greek New Testament manuscripts,Over 10,000 Latin manuscripts, and

Over 9,300 manuscripts in other

languages.

These manuscripts date from A.D.

125 to the beginning of printing, c.1450. The vast majority date after

the 10thcentury A.D.


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Textual critics are the

unsung heroes of

biblical scholarship!

Textual criticism requires a

profound knowledge of

ancient languages, history,

literature and compositional

technique, as well as

enormously time-

consuming, meticulous and

detailed work. It is both ahighly developed science

and an art.


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Kurt Aland, et al., editors. The Greek New Testament, 4thedition. London:

United Bible Societies, 2001.


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As we begin our study of the

Gospel according to Mark, it is

important to remember that agospel is nota biography of a

person, although it does contain

biographical information; it is not

an historical account of a person,although it is rooted in historical

time; it is nota fictional account of

a person, although it does include

miracles, wonders and a large

dose of the supernatural. Rather .

. .


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. . . a gospel reflects the

understanding of whoJesus Christ is and what

he did, in light of a living

faith tradition, guided by

the Holy Spirit, 30-60

years after the events it

portrays.


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1. How does a gospel differ from other genres ofliterature?

2. If the four canonical gospels emerge from 30-60 yearsof oral tradition, would the stories they tell haveevolved with the telling? If so, how? If not, why?

3. Although Jesus lived in a remote corner of the RomanEmpire, wrote nothing and never traveled more than100 miles from home, he and his message became aglobal enterprise with 2 billion followers today. Howdo you account for that?

4. Why are Matthew, Mark, Luke & John in the NewTestament, while other gospels, such as the Gospel

of Thomas, are not in the canon of Scripture?5. How do you know that the Gospel you are reading is

what its author or authors actually wrote?


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Copyright 2014 by William C. Creasy

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1. the Synoptic Gospels