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The so-called synoptic problem concerns the interrelationship between the first three gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. These gospels are called synoptic gospels because they can be “viewed together” and can be seen to share a large amount of information.

Matthew contains 1068 verses, Luke 1149, and Mark 661. An impressive 540 verses of each are parallel. This common material has been called the “triple tradition.” Put another way, Matthew parallels 97% of the total words in Mark while Luke parallels 88% of those words. There are additionally about 90 verses which are parallel in Matthew and Mark which are not found in Luke. There are about 10 verses found in Mark and Luke which are not found in Matthew. Matthew and Luke share about 200 verses not found in Mark (known as the “double tradition”). Verses which have no parallel in any other gospel number about 20 in Mark, 300 in Matthew, and 500 in Luke. In those passages which are common, the Synoptics contain virtual verbatim agreement about 50% of the time. Matthew and Luke generally present events in the same order as Mark, although for those events not contained in Mark, there is more variation in order.

What is one to make of these amazing similarities? How can these parallels be explained? This is what is meant by “the synoptic problem.” There are actually a number of answers to these questions, some of which I will address in the next post.