The Synoptic Gospels Of Matthew, Luke, And John

The Synoptic Gospels The New Testament is composed of four Gospels written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke are known as the Synoptic Gospels because they all contain either similar or identical stories from Jesus’ life. Synoptic means that they can be read together “with one eye” (Harris 117). All the connections and similarities between the Synoptic Gospels had created an issue for scholars that they referred to as the Synoptic Problem. In order to solve the Synoptic Problem, scholars developed different theories to explain the relationship between the Gospels. Understanding the relationship between the Synoptic Gospels is useful for understanding the Gospels themselves. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke all generally follow the same order of events for Jesus’ life. The proclamation of John the Baptist appears in each of the Synoptic Gospels, and it follows the same general story line (Mark 1:9-11, Matthew 3:1-17 and Luke 3:1-21). More similarities are seen through Jesus’s baptism in the Jordan River and continues with his journey’s through Galilee, where he performed many miracles. …show more content…
There are multiple examples of this throughout Mark’s Gospel. First is when Jesus returns to Nazareth. Jesus returns to his hometown and he is rejected by the townspeople. They questioned his wisdom and the deeds that he did. Mark also claims that Jesus could do no great deeds of power in Nazareth and he was amazed at their unbelief (Mark 6:1-6). This is a huge example of Jesus feeling abandoned as a messiah. Another major instance of abandonment is when Jesus cried out to God when he was dying on the cross. Jesus cried out “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34). This could imply the feelings of abandonment that he could have felt. At this point Mark portrays Jesus as feeling abandoned by everyone, even God as he dies on the cross for the world to