Studying The Synoptic Gospels

Stein examines in-depth the literary relationship of the Synoptic Gospels, the preliterary history of the gospel traditions, and the inscripturation of the gospel traditions.

An essential textbook on the synoptic problem with a vast amount of illustrative material.

In this book respected New Testament scholar Pheme Perkins delivers a clear, fresh, informed introduction to the earliest written accounts of Jesus — Matthew, Mark, and Luke — situating those canonical Gospels within the wider world of oral storytelling and literary production of the first and second centuries. Cutting through the media confusion over new Gospel finds, Perkins s Introduction to the Synoptic Gospels presents a balanced, responsible look at how the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke came to be and what they mean.

This revised and expanded introductory text introduces students of the Bible to the layers of meaning that can be uncovered by serious study of the synoptic gospel texts. Included are two new chapters introducing ideological exegetical approaches to the gospels and a concluding chapter that helps the student synthesize the exegetical discoveries they have made using the methods taught in the book.

A lively, readable and up-to-date guide to the Synoptic Problem, ideal for undergraduate students, and the general reader.

The approaches of contemporary New Testament scholarship to Jesus and the Gospels have been, in Royce Gordon Gruenler's view, inadequate. Instead, he offers some imaginative and well-articulated reflections on several new and promising approaches. These "have meant a great deal to me over the past few years," he writes, "since in fact I had a change of personal commitment from a former liberalism which had run dry, to the rediscovery of the vitality of my earlier evangelical heritage." This change was precipitated by "the investigation of the data" that this provocative volume details. Gruenler employs a phenomenology of persons, borrowed from Wittgenstein, to highlight the fundamental claims of Jesus. Though limiting himself to the core of sayings accepted by radical critics as authentic, the author concludes that Jesus' concept of himself is so incredible on any human level that it becomes academic to insist on separating his implicit from his explicit christological claims. The use of redaction criticism to distinguish the two, therefore, is misguided. Marshaled in support are Lewis, who urges attentiveness and obedience to the story; Ramsey, who points to the "logically odd" supernaturalism of the Gospels; Polanyi, the tacit dimension of trust; Marcel, Jesus' creative fidelity; Tolkien, the spell of the story; and Van Til, the importance of presuppositions in Gospel research.

For the past forty years, but for only the first time in history, Christian scholars fluent in Hebrew and living in the land of Israel have collaborated with Jewish scholars to examine Jesus' sayings from a Judaic and Hebraic perspective. The result of this research confirms that Jesus was an organic part of the diverse social and religious landscape of Second Temple-period Judaism. He, like other Jewish sages of his time, used specialized methods to teach foundational Jewish theological concepts such as God's abundant grace. Jesus' teaching was revolutionary in a number of ways, particularly in three areas: his radical interpretation of the biblical commandment of mutual love; his call for a new morality; and his idea of the Kingdom of Heaven. Jerusalem Studies in the Synoptic Gospels, the initial volume, focuses on the Passion Narratives in a search for the Historical Jesus. It also reexamines the synoptic problem in light of recent historical and archaeological research. The volume represents the first attempt by members and associates of the Jerusalem School to apply collectively the methodology pioneered by Robert Lindsey and David Flusser. Included in the volume is the final article written by the late Professor Flusser, The Synagogue and the Church in the Synoptic Gospels.