Sunday, August 15, 2021

The Overlap Between The Synoptics And John

Critics make much of the alleged differences between the Synoptic gospels and John. The amount of overlap between them is often underestimated, including by conservative Christians. I want to gather some links to posts we've written on the subject over the years. These examples are far from exhaustive. You can search our archives for more.

On how much overlap we should expect, see here.

Jesus' family.

His childhood.

His career.

His viewing himself as the figure of Isaiah 9:1-7 and how he interpreted the passage.

How he referred to Peter.

And here's one on some agreements about unusual terminology used by Jesus.

Regarding his nonverbal characteristics, see here and here.

How he raised the dead.

His use of object lessons.

Soteriology.

The prominence of love.

The character of the apostles.

The events surrounding Jesus' death and resurrection.

Undesigned coincidences among various passages.

You can find many other examples of agreements between the Synoptics and John in Lydia McGrew's Hidden In Plain View (Chillicothe, Ohio: DeWard, 2017) and The Eye Of The Beholder (Tampa, Florida: DeWard, 2021).

6 comments:

  1. You say in your soteriology link, "All four gospels portray repentance as implied by faith, so that repentance will sometimes be mentioned alongside faith to emphasize it, whereas only one or the other will be mentioned on other occasions." Given that the Gospel of John never mentions the verb or the noun for repent/repentance (metanoó/metánoia), why do you say that the Gospel of John implies repentance?

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    1. Read the sentences that follow the one you quoted from my post.

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  2. "They agree in having faith accompanied by regeneration and sanctification, so that saving faith is evidenced by improved behavior."

    Why do you think the Gospel of John never uses the verb or the noun for repent/repentance (metanoó/metánoia)? Thanks.

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    1. That's a different issue, and what I'm addressing in this thread doesn't depend on the answer.

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    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. "That's a different issue, and what I'm addressing in this thread doesn't depend on the answer."

    Okay. Thanks for your time.

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