synoptics

Synoptics refers to the first three canonical Gospels of the New Testament—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—so named because they can be viewed together in parallel and share a large amount of content and order. The term derives from the Greek synoptikos, meaning “seen together.” The Gospel of John is not considered a synoptic, due to substantial differences in content, chronology, and style.

These three texts are characterized by a substantial overlap of material, often in similar sequence and wording, which is called the double tradition. They also contain material unique to each gospel. The substantial similarity among Matthew, Mark, and Luke raises questions about their literary relationship, a scholarly issue known as the Synoptic Problem. Researchers seek to explain how these texts were composed and how they influenced one another.

The most influential explanation is the two-source hypothesis, which posits that Mark was written first and served as a common source for Matthew and Luke, who also drew on a separate collection of Jesus sayings, provisionally called Q (from German Quelle, meaning source). Alternatives include the Farrer hypothesis, which preserves Markan priority without invoking Q by having Luke use both Mark and Matthew, and the Griesbach (Two-Gospel) hypothesis, which proposes Matthew was first, with Luke drawing on Matthew and Mark drawing on Matthew and Luke.

Scholarly consensus generally places Mark earlier (roughly the 60s–70s CE) and Matthew and Luke in the following decades, with the Synoptic Problem continuing to be a central area of inquiry in biblical studies, literary criticism, and theology.