Synoptic Gospels

The Synoptic Gospels are the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The word synoptic is Latin, derived from the Greek roots sun, meaning "with", and opsis, meaning "seeing". The sense of the word is therefore "seen together", as the three Gospels share so much of their content. Much of the material in Mark's Gospel, and Luke's, expands upon Matthew.^[1] John's Gospel, in contrast, follows its own narrative. Biblical scholars have postulated the existence of an additional hypothetical Gospel account named Q (for the French word Quelle, meaning "source"), from which the authors of Matthew, Mark and Luke all drew some of their material.

The term "synoptic" is easy to understand by thinking of "synopsis".

The Synoptic Gospels expressly refer to "faith" 44 times, while the Gospel of John contains no references to that specific term.

See also[edit]

• Augustinian hypothesis
• Markan priority
• Documentary Hypothesis

References[edit]