The Synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John

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The Synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John


A Comparison


The four books that have been placed at the beginning of the New Testament, the Gospels, are a kind of benign Rashomon-style account of Jesus; his life, his teachings and his ultimate ascension. The first three books, are named after their presumed authors, Matthew, Mark and Luke, and are referred to as the Synoptic Gospels (from the Greek synoptikos, “viewing together”). So called because of their similar approaches to the story, they differ not only in content from the fourth Gospel, John, but particularly in the fourth book’s spiritual and poetic style which is more complex and profound than the first three books.


Who wrote these Gospels has been a matter of theological debate, and the order and date of the books is still a matter of speculation. Most scholars today are confident that Mark was written first, followed by Matthew (who was not familiar with the term “plagiarism”), then Luke and finally John. Having the Gospels bookended by two of Jesus’ disciples possibly gave some comfort to the original organizers of the text. However, it is more logical to believe that Matthew was placed first because of the inclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, since it contains the essence of Christianity.


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The authorship of all four Gospels has been a controversial subject since “canon questioning” became popular in the nineteenth century. Scholars point out that there is no Mark listed among the disciples, and Matthew, a tax collector, seems an unlikely candidate for credit. (but as an eyewitness, he clearly had something to do with the Gospel that bears his name.) Luke seems more polished than the first two, and he certainly was well educated and conversant in Greek, as evidenced by his use of the conventions of classical Greek writings. John is harder to pinpoint. That he was a witness to the events in his book, is easily accepted, but could a simple Gallillean fisherman have given us such poetic Greek prose?


When they were written is also open to scholarly speculation, but most modern theologians place Mark around 70 BCE, Matthew and Luke ten to fifteen years later, and John well into the first decade of the 100’s.


However, none of this is as important as what was written. The Gospels outline the foundation for the Christian religion, and accusations of redundancy are easily dispelled when we look carefully at the text.


The similarities of the synoptic Gospels allow us to separate them from John and make comparison much simpler. Matthew and Luke both concur on the Sermon on the Mount and the declaration of the Beatitudes, and are in virtual unison as they enunciate the Golden Rule. Mark joins them with the view that a Kingdom divided is in big trouble, and the three books are almost identical in their retelling of the walk on water, the mustard seed parable and the crucifixion details. Description of the virgin birth and its accompanying details are prominent in the first three books, but seem to be purposely omitted from the fourth. John makes no mention of the Lord’s Prayer, and the casting out of demons is nowhere to be found in the fourth book.


The book of John stands apart from the other gospels. Not only does it omit any information about Jesus’ birth, it leaves out any details of his early life. More interesting than what it omits, is the list of events that it describes that are not to be found anywhere in Scripture. Only in John do we find Jesus’ first miracle at Cana ,where he turned water into wine at the insistence of Mary, (“Woman, my time has not yet come”, John 4) In John we learn of Lazarus’ resurrection, Nicodemus’s visit with Jesus and the first cleansing of the temple. John describes three trips to Jerusalem, while the synoptics mention only one. And the long farewell message to his disciples (John 1-17) is nowhere to be found in the synoptic books


However, it is more than specific content that distinguishes John .It is from a literary perspective that John differs from the synoptics in its approach. While both are written from a third person perspective, the synoptics are descriptive and reportive, while John has stepped back to give us a more reflective view that could only come from a place in time more removed from Matthew, Mark and Luke. The author of John has almost isolated himself from the events, and even though he appears to have been there when it all occurred, he has had a great deal of time to digest ad interpret the moments.


John is full of clever literary devices that are used to bring home the points the author wants to make. The misunderstood statement” is found throughout. Jesus’ words


are misunderstood and that gives him an opportunity to explain exactly what he means, as when Nicodemus asks “how can a man be born when he is old?” (John 5) Jesus can now clear up Nicodemus’ confusion…and ours. In John 4, the Samaritan woman misunderstands Jesus reference to living water and that allows him to explain carefully that the ‘water’ he gives will lead to eternal life. (a metaphor that seems unforced and natural in John)


Symbolism and double meanings abound in John (1, the temple/body references) and more importantly, the gospel is replete in long dialogues and conversations rather that proverbs or sayings that are found in the synoptics. (The Nicodemus conversation (John ), the farewell to the disciples (John 1-17), and the Bread of Life discourse (John 6). The theological historian, L. Goppelt described it this way “the Gospel of John passed on the words of Jesus predominantly in another genre than the synoptics; it did not do so in sayings, parables and controversial dialogues,, but in connected or dialogical discourses.”


Aside from style, the purpose of the books must be taken into account. John is clearly evangelical in nature, asking its audience to make an informed decision about Jesus. While Matthew seems to have been written for a specific constituency, and Mark and Luke were both designed for Greek or Roman readers, John has a more ambitious goal a universal audience.


Although John is rather complex, his main theme is clear Jesus is God. While the synoptic gospels describe his diviness, it is John that proclaims that Jesus can forgive and therefore is God.


The declaration of Jesus as God is central to the Gospel of John. In the Prologue of the book, Jesus is referred to as ”the one and only”…. not like other people; he is the divine Son of God and therefore IS God. In 818 he again makes it clear that Jesus is God, and in 14-8 Jesus says, ”anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” He is saying, according to John, that he speaks and acts for God because he is God and God is in him. He is claiming that the Father and the Son equally have all the qualities of a deity, therefore he is claiming to be God. Again in 100 we hear Jesus declare (according to John) “I and the Father are one.”


This is the thrust of John.


It has been said that the Gospel of John is like a pool of water, shallow enough at the edges for a child to wade, but deep enough in the center that an elephant could swim. This seems appropriate since, unlike the synoptics, there is a depth to this book that has kept scholars busy for lifetimes.














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