Meet the Storytellers Part 3

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Meet the
Storytellers
Searching the depths of the gospels
By John R Smith
Part 3. The Synoptic Problem and other
relevant issues.

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Revolt and rebellion
The Great Revolt - or the Jewish-Roman Wars of 66-73 AD -
resulted from widespread abhorrence of the Roman occupation of
Judea. It was a long and bloodthirsty struggle. The siege of
Jerusalem lasted for 7 months in the summer of AD 70. The
Roman general Titus eventually destroyed the walls of Jerusalem as
well as the Temple and the citadels.
Most of the survivors were taken into slavery.
The famous Arch of Titus in Rome depicts Roman legionaries
carrying the Temple of Jerusalem’s treasuries, including the
Menorah, during Titus triumphal procession in Rome. With the fall
of Jerusalem, some insurrection still continued in isolated locations
in Judea, lasting as long as AD 73.
The people were left in despair and the Christians becoming much
more targeted as a source of trouble by the post-Rebellion Jews.
And that sets the scene for another return to our old friend Mark. 1
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SIGNIFICANCE OF MARK
A REPRISE
Mark's is most probably the first of the written
gospels. It's really the one that establishes... the life
of Jesus as a story form. It develops a narrative from
his early career, through ...the main points of his life and culminates in
his death. And, as such, it sets the pattern for all the later gospel
traditions. We know that both Matthew and Luke used Mark, as a source
in their composition and it's also probable that even John knew
something of Mark in tradition. So, Mark is really the one that sets
the stage for all the later Christian gospel writings.
Mark retells the story of Jesus. He starts by taking a number of elements
of earlier oral tradition. Mark seems to have a knowledge of at least one
and maybe two or three different collections of miracle stories as a
source. He weaves these together with other stories about Jesus, about
teachings, about travels, about other things and makes those a part of
his understanding of how Jesus' life worked and what it was intended to
do.
But, in the final analysis, Mark's gospel is really about the death of
Jesus. It's a passion narrative with an extended introduction, some
people would say. Mark tells the story by thinking about the death and
letting all the events that lead up to that death move toward it and
through it. So, it's the death of Jesus that's the guiding principle to
Mark's gospel, not the life…. In Mark, Jesus is often a sad character.
Mark tells the story this way in order to make sense out of the death of
Jesus and in the light of the events of the first revolt. Those are the two
guiding principles really of the story line of Mark….

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For Mark, Jesus is a somewhat enigmatic figure and that's very
important to his way of telling the story. Jesus is mysterious. Jesus
intentionally keeps people from understanding who he really is, at times.
At times, Jesus actually silences the demons who would announce his
true identity. When he performs a miracle, he tells people, don't say
anything to anyone about what I have done. He even takes the disciples
away, off into a corner, and teaches them privately so that others won't
hear and understand the message. He seems to be a very secretive kind
of figure in Mark's gospel. 2
Our three way marks on our journey have been to think of
CONTENT
CONSTRUCTION
CONTEXT
And we have those very much to hand, too, as we set out on our
journey.
We are going to open Matthew, Mark and Luke - the three synoptic
gospels - and quickly see how that works.
And don’t forget one thing of which we were almost made sure!
MARK CAME FIRST!!
(summation of arguments to follow.)
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L. Michael White: “Scripting Jesus. “ May 2010. Pub by HarperOne

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What is a synopsis? Well “opsis” comes from the Greek root for seeing.
And “syn” means together.
It is very illuminating to take these three documents and put their
material into side-by-side columns. One of the things that we see
immediately is that there are a lot of stories and incidents from the life
of Jesus that are replicated in the three first gospels. 155 of the verses
in Mark are not repeated in Matthew or Luke. And yet, much of what he
does write is richer in detail. And at the same time the number of
incidents is markedly smaller.
Mark's language is unique among the Gospels. Some scholars have argued
that Mark's style is unsophisticated and unrefined or awkward. But others find
Mark's Greek very dense and detailed. Mark is full of Latinisms, in idioms and
vocabulary. Mark tends to conjoin verbs and sentences with καὶ (kai, "and");
in fact, more than half the verses in Mark begin with καὶ. Mark is also notably
fond of εὐθὺς (euthùs, "immediately") and πάλιν (pálin, "again"), frequently
uses dual expressions, and often prefers the historical present tense. ] In
essence, then, Mark's style is not so much literary as thoroughly colloquial. 3
Mt 8:23–25 Lk 8:22–24 Mk 4:35–38
As he got into
the boat, his
disciples
followed him.
And a great
storm
developed on
the sea so that
the waves
began to
swamp the
boat. But he
was asleep. So
they came and
woke him up
saying, “Lord,
save us! We
are about to
die!”
One day Jesus got into
a boat with his disciples
and said to them, “Let’s
go across to the other
side of the lake.” So
they set out, and as
they sailed he fell
asleep. Now a violent
windstorm came down
on the lake, and the
boat started filling up
with water, and they
were in danger. They
came and woke him,
saying, “Master,
Master, we are about to
die!”
On that day, when evening
came, Jesus said to his
disciples, “Let’s go across to the
other side.” So after leaving the
crowd, they took him along,
just as he was, in the boat,
and other boats were with
him. Now a great windstorm
developed and the waves were
breaking into the boat, so that
the boat was nearly swamped.
But he was in the stern,
sleeping on a cushion. They
woke him up and said to him,
“Teacher, don’t you care that
we are about to die?”
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Here is a working example of a synopsis. The story of the calming of the
storm. Mark's unique details tend to be, by necessity, non-essential
ones. Were Matthew and Luke trimming away trivial narrative details in
favour of the extensive material they wished to add elsewhere? Anyway,
Mark must have had an independent source (traditionally, Peter)
spanning nearly his entire Gospel.
Now it has to be said that although this study of the material has been
going on since the mid-19th century, what I present to you tonight will
be partly prejudice. This solution to the Synoptic Problem is the one
that has gained traction during past century. It’s the one I was taught.
It is certainly the one most accepted today among New Testament
scholars. But there are other solutions - e.g. ones that argue for a
Matthean priority.
We have touched here on the simplest theory. But
logic pushes ahead with the thought that this is too
simple. There is so much material that is identical
in Matthew and Luke, but does not come from Mark.
Who is Q?
The Mystery of Q
Even if Matthew and Luke are independent the Q hypothesis states that they
used a common document. Arguments for Q being a written document
include:
• Sometimes the exactness in wording is striking.
• There is sometimes commonality in order between the two, for example
the Sermon on the Mount
• The presence of doublets, where Matthew and Luke sometimes each
present two versions of a similar saying but in different context, only
one of those versions appearing in Mark. Doublets may bea sign of two
written sources, i.e., Mark and Q.
• Luke mentions that he knows of other written sources of Jesus' life, and
that he has investigated in order to gather the most information.
The fact that no Q manuscripts exist today does not necessarily argue
against its existence. Many early Christian texts no longer exist, and we only
know they did from their citation or mention in surviving texts. Unless
someone finds a clay pot in the desert with surviving manuscript, I fear we will
never know much more than we do.

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BUT WAIT.
Not quite done I fear. Look at this.
Closest to what the theory would suggest. There are clearly pointers
suggest that other sources than the ones we have suggested were available
to Matthew and Luke. These are what we would consider to be earlier
versions of these gospels - known as proto-Matthew and proto-Luke.
And there is a solution to the SYNOPTIC PROBLEM.
Not the only one, but the most widely accepted at this time.
Discussion points
Remember John Dominic Crossan?
“The problem is that, slowly but surely
across the past two hundred years of
scholarly research, we have learned
that the gospels are exactly what they

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openly and honestly claim they are. They are not history, though they contain
history. They are not biography, though they contain biography. They are
gospel—that is, good news. Good indicates that the news is seen from
somebody’s point of view—from, for example, the Christian rather than the
imperial interpretation.”
Have we taught the gospels properly in the past?
Why does it matter? Where lie the advantages of a clearer view?
[ and a postscript from Crossan - “If an audience kept complete silence
during a challenge parable from Jesus and if an audience filed past him
afterward saying, 'Lovely parable, this morning, Rabbi,' Jesus would have
failed utterly.”]. Just for fun!
AND FINALLY,
NEXT WEEK
The religious groups Jesus met with.
How they each developed after Jesus’ time
A mini bible study on Jairus’ daughter and the woman with the
haemorrhage.