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Summary

Highly Recommended

Book Description:
"The problematic literary relationship among the Synoptic Gospels has given rise to numerous theories of authorship and priority. The primary objective of Rethinking the Synoptic Problem is to familiarize students with the main positions held by New Testament scholars in this much-debated area of research."

Every now and again you find a good bargain while out shopping. I was browsing through a Half Price Books store and found a copy of "Rethinking the Synoptic Problem" for 5$. I skimmed through it and saw that it had 5 essays in it written by some of the top New Testament Scholars. The contributors are Craig Blomberg, Darrell Bock, William Farmer (who unfortunately passed away before the publishing of this book), Scot McKnight, and Grant R. Osborne. For someone like myself who hadn't studied the Synoptic Problem that much I found it useful and informative. Craig Blomberg has the first chapter and gives a somewhat brief overview of the Synoptic Problem. He also states his position and why he accepts it. Darrell Bock then has the next chapter and gives a well written essay on Q, showing it to be plausible, but also carefully assigning the limit to Q studies. He even gives some well deserved criticism to scholars of the Jesus Seminar persuasion who try to force Q to fit their own personal beliefs. Dr. Bock says that at best Q can be discussed generally, but to speak of layers, and exact wording and so forth is a severe error. Scot McKnight is next with an essay on the Oxford Hypothesis which supports Markan Priority. He gives a brief history of it, then shows the evidence he believes supports the hypothesis. Next up is the eldest and probably most knowledgable NT Scholar in this book in regards to the Synoptic Problem: William R. Farmer. Farmer is a supporter of the Greisbach Hypothesis, which more akin to J.P.'s theory on literary dependence among the synoptics. The Greisbach hypothesis states that Matthew wrote first, followed by Luke, then Mark conflated the two down into one shorter narrative. I found this the most intriguing of all essays simply because all I'd ever heard of were arguments for Markan Priority and Q, besides the articles here at Tekton. The final essay is one by Grant R. Osborne, who gives a response to each of the essays. He also briefly discusses the issue of there being zero literary dependence, but concludes that the evidence used to that position is vastly overstated.

I would give this book three thumbs up except for one thing: the price. It is rather short, at about 151 pages, and costs 16.99 at list price. I'd get this from your library or try to find it at a used book store, unless you can afford it. Other than that, it is a great book.