When the text of the gospels is analyzed, as any text might be analyzed, two features quickly surface. First, the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke bear a striking similarity to each other: they mostly narrate the same events, in roughly the same order, in similar language (for this reason, these three are usually known as the synoptic gospels). Second, John's gospel is strikingly different from the other three, and has generally fallen into a class of its own.

In the following, these similarities and differences will be examined in substantial detail, with an aim of forming a more complete picture of how the gospels were written.

Matthew, Mark and Luke

The similarities between the first three gospels do not end with the simple broad outline of events. Many passages in fact have almost identical counterparts in the other gospels. For example:

Matthew 8:3 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately he was cured of his leprosy.

Mark 1:41-42 Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.

Luke 5:13 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" And immediately the leprosy left him.

Matthew 8:3 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them.

Mark 2:23 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain.

Luke 6:1 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels.

Matthew 26:26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat; this is my body."

Mark 14:22 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take it; this is my body."

Luke 22:19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me."

The mostly identical wording of the parallel verses is hard to miss. In the first example, the only differences are that (1) Mark includes a statement about Jesus' feelings, and (2) in the final statements, all three are different, but only slightly.

The other two examples also demonstrate mostly identical wording, with occasional re-ordering or additional information. Luke's extra statement, "rub them in their hands and eat the kernels", is the most significant extra material.

What do we make of this? It seems impossible that the three versions are derived from independent eye-witnesses. This may be possible if only the spoken words were identical. Witnesses often very accurately remember what was spoken, for example, "I am willing, be clean!". However, the chance of three independent witnesses coincidentally agreeing on exact wording on a narrative (for example, "Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man") is impossible.

The only explanation is that two of the gospel authors are copying off the third, or that all three are following a single common source. Determining exactly who copied who has been a long standing question and is known as the synoptic problem.

One of the clues to the synoptic problem comes from looking more closely at the similarities between the above passages. Notice that, in the above three examples, sometimes two of the gospels agree but the third does not. For example, the phrase "the leprosy left him" is common to Mark and Luke but not Matthew. Similarly, the phrase "he was cured" is common to Matthew and Mark but not Luke. However, it turns out that, in stories common to all three gospels, virtually no phrases are common to Matthew and Luke but not Mark. The common passages virtually always include Mark.

Another example may be helpful.

Matthew 9:14-15 14 Then John's disciples came and asked him, "How is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?" 15 Jesus answered, "How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast."

Mark 2:18-20 18 Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, "How is it that John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?" 19 Jesus answered, "How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. 20 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast."

Luke 5:33-35 33 They said to him, "John's disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking." 34 Jesus answered, "Can you make the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? 35 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast."

The parallels are indicated as bold type. In this case the passage is mostly Jesus speaking, but we notice the same tendencies here as in the previous examples. The three versions differ most on the introduction, although it is clear that all have the same event in mind. Matthew and Mark agree exactly on the phrases "came and asked" and "How is it that". Mark and Luke agree exactly on the phrase "the disciples of the Pharisees", as well as the word "fast", in Jesus' reply, rather that Matthew's word "mourn". Nowhere does Matthew and Luke agree on a wording when Mark does not.

The inference is obvious. Matthew and Luke quite probably used Mark as one of their sources. We will mention some further compelling evidence for "Marcan priority" later on. For Luke, this dependence hardly surprising, since other sources are acknowledged at the beginning of this gospel. However, some may feel that Matthew should not have needed to copy another person's writing if he was an eyewitness to the events described, and that it should be Mark who used Matthew's gospel as a source for his, rather than the other way around.

At this point it should be noted that nowhere within any of the synoptic gospels do the authors identify themselves. The titles of the documents, "According to Matthew" etc., may or may not be reflections of who wrote them. We do not possess enough evidence to determine exactly who wrote them. However, it seems highly unlikely that an eyewitness to the events would rely so heavily on another source as "Matthew" does in his gospel. This is not to say that eyewitnesses played no part in the creation of the documents, but it can be safely concluded that whoever the final author or compiler of "Matthew" was, he was not an eyewitness. We will return to this later.

At the risk of overstating the points just made, another example is presented:

Matthew 26:14-16 14 Then one of the twelve, named Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests 15 and said, "What are you willing to give me to betray Him to you?" And they weighed out thirty pieces of silver to him. 16 From then on he began looking for a good opportunity to betray Jesus.

Mark 14:10-11 10 Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went off to the chief priests in order to betray Him to them. 11 They were glad when they heard this, and promised to give him money. And he began seeking how to betray Him at an opportune time.

Luke 22:3-6 3 And Satan entered into Judas who was called Iscariot, belonging to the number of the twelve. 4 And he went away and discussed with the chief priests and officers how he might betray Him to them. 5 They were glad and agreed to give him money. 6 So he consented, and began seeking a good opportunity to betray Him to them apart from the crowd.

Here there is less agreement, although the number of identical phrases, as well as the general features of the passages indicate a strong literary dependence between the three accounts.

For the third time we see a case of Matthew (v. 14) and Mark (v. 10) differing in the order of words, rather than in the content, of a sentence. We also see some unique material, particularly the famous thirty pieces of silver in Matthew's account. We will return to this point later.

The phrase "a good opportunity (to betray)" is very interesting - it appears to be an agreement between Matthew and Luke but not Mark.

Matthew 15 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a remote place, and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food." 16 Jesus replied, "They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat." 17 "We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish," they answered. 18 "Bring them here to me," he said. 19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20 and they all ate and were satisfied. They picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve full baskets.

Mark 35 By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. "This is a remote place," they said, "and it's already very late. 36 Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat." 37 But he answered, "You give them something to eat." They said to him, "That would take eight months of a man's wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?" 38 "How many loaves do you have?" he asked. "Go and see." When they found out, they said, "Five--and two fish." 39 Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. 41 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. 42 They all ate and were satisfied, 43 and they picked up twelve full baskets of the broken pieces, and also of the fish. 44 There were five thousand men who ate the loaves.

Luke 12 Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, "Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here." 13 He replied, "You give them something to eat." They answered, "We have only five loaves of bread and two fish-- unless we go and buy food for all this crowd." 14 (About five thousand men were there.) But he said to his disciples, "Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each." 15 The disciples did so, and everybody sat down. 16 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to set before the people. 17 And they all ate and were satisfied; and the broken pieces which they had left over were picked up, twelve baskets full.

45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus' parables, they knew he was talking about them. 46 They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.

12 Then they looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd; so they left him and went away.

The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people.

16 "No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. 17 Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved."

21 "No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. 22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and so are the wineskins. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins."

36 He told them this parable: "No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. 38 No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, `The old is better.'"

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