# Question about the two divisions of the Gospel.



## O'GodHowGreatThouArt (Dec 26, 2010)

I just learned today that the books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are their own division within the four Gospels. If I read correctly, they are called the Synoptic Gospels.

As some here already know, synoptic is a Greek word that means "same or like view". My question is this: Why is the book of John not a part of this grouping?

From what I've read, it appears that it would qualify as synoptic with the previous three.


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## Notthemama1984 (Dec 26, 2010)

Matthew, Mark, and Luke are Synoptics in that they treat the same material in similar ways. John on the other hand is much more theological and approaches the life of Christ vastly different. This is why John is not considered one of the Synoptic Gospels.

This labeling is not a slight to any of the books, but merely a way of grouping.


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## Herald (Dec 26, 2010)

Bryan, I concur with Boliver. The repeated theme of John's Gospel is the _logos _Christology, or Jesus as the divine word.


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## DTK (Dec 26, 2010)

O'GodHowGreatThouArt said:


> I just learned today that the books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are their own division within the four Gospels. If I read correctly, they are called the Synoptic Gospels.
> 
> As some here already know, synoptic is a Greek word that means "same or like view". My question is this: Why is the book of John not a part of this grouping?
> 
> From what I've read, it appears that it would qualify as synoptic with the previous three.



To be a bit more precise, the word synoptic comes from the Greek word, συνοπτικός (a noun form from the verb συνοράω) and means to "see together at the same time" or "to see together at a glance." This word is the combination of the of the Greek preposition σύν (with) and Greek verb ὁράω (to see). 

Although they too have their differences, the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke present us with a structure of Christ's ministry according to a geographic order of events . . . ministry in Galilee, withdrawal to northern palestine, ministry in Judea while Jesus is proceeding to Jerusalem (though this is less clear in Luke), and final ministry in Jerusalem. 

One sees very little of this kind of sequence/order in John's Gospel where we see more of a focus on Jesus' ministry in the city of Jerusalem, though one needs to be careful here because of its tendency to oversimplify the structure of John's Gospel.

In other words, the term "synoptic" applied to the three gospels to differentiate them from the Gospel of John is really due to a structuring motif.


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## toddpedlar (Dec 26, 2010)

For those more expert than I on issues of the historical approaches to the study of the Greek text... does the term as applied to Matthew Mark and Luke come from before or after German Higher Criticism and the "Q" hypothesis, or did it arise as people began to hypothesize that the three derive (in various orders and with various dependencies) from this "Q" document they discuss as the 'root' Gospel?


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