Hot answers tagged synoptics
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Isaiah 51:17 (ESV):
Wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering
See also Jer 49:12 (ESV):
For thus says the LORD: “If those who did not deserve to drink the cup must drink it, will you go unpunished? You shall not ...
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Alfred Edersheim, on Page 1135 of his book, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, writes:
It could not have been an eclipse, since it was the time of full moon; nor can we place reliance on the later reports on this subject of ecclesiastical writers. It seems only in accordance with the Evangelic narrative to regard the occurrence of the event as ...
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The Hebrew word שמיים (shamayim), which is translated into English, is what is known in Judaism as a כנוי (kinnui), or a "substitute," "nickname."
The reason why Matthew uses "kingdom of Heaven" more often than "kingdom of God" is because he wrote to a Jewish audience, and the Jews did not pronounce the Tetragrammaton יהוה, and sometimes not even the word ...
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Some say the "Kingdom of Heaven" refers to the a physical/political kingdom on earth while the "Kingdom of God" is the spiritual, coming reign of Christ.
Arguments against the two being the same often come down to hair splitting and misinterpretation of verses. For example, the site listed above relies on a single verse in an attempt to say they are ...
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(I'm answering just from the text. I do not have deep background with gospels.)
A festive meal (holiday, Shabbat, others) would have included (and still includes) wine; we know this from discussions in the mishna, which spans the time Jesus lived. In addition to beginning the meal by sanctifying a cup of wine, there are prayers after the meal that are ...
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Eli and Monica's answers already contain much helpful information, but I want to further legitimize their answers by putting a term to what they (and especially Eli) have said.
Paul is using the common literary device of metonymy. This is no uncommon or arcane linguistic phenomenon. By the way, did I mention that I just bought a new set of wheels two days ...
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I'm going to say that it's somewhat invalid to ask about the validity of a hermeneutic. For instance, most modern biblical scholars would say that allegories and typologies should not be used as valid proofs for doctrine. And yet St. Paul "explicitly indulges in allegory (allegoroumena, Galatians 4;24), he uses it to draw the conclusion that “we are not ...
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Yes. A thorough comparison of the gospels shows that "kingdom of heaven" is Matthew's term for "kingdom of God". Whenever "kingdom of God" appears in a parallel passage, Matthew almost always rephrases it "kingdom of heaven". I've highlighted these two phrases in the following examples.
The parable of the mustard seed
Mark 4:30-32
He also said, ...
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Other gospels simplified
If you accept Matthean priority, the question becomes, "Why did Mark and Luke halve people?" It's even simpler than that since Luke usually prefers Mark's text. Robert Dean Luginbill (author and curator of Ichthys.com) argues:
There were two, so Matthew gives two. But the fact of "two" raises questions which a concentration on ...
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A Generation is 40 years in Bible. Here are some examples.
Numbers 32:13 (ESV) - And the Lord's anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was gone.
Deuteronomy 1:34-36 (ESV) - And the Lord heard your words and was angered, and he swore, ‘Not ...
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Bultmann's major book on the topic (which I have not read) is The History of the Synoptic Tradition, in which he employs the form-critical method (see the title of this work by him). According to Wikipedia he is one of the pioneers of this method. John Webster says,
This book analyzes the various literary forms of the accounts of the ministry of Jesus in ...
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Yes, comparing parallel Gospel accounts is very important and useful as a hermeneutic tool. Often one author will add a flavor that the other does not. This allows us to learn more of the event and/or the author.
All three synoptic writers record the woman with the issue of blood. The story is very similar, but we learn something about Luke from a detail ...
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This question is hotly debated, and there's no real consensus. There's a very recent monograph on exactly this topic, Goodacre's "Thomas and the gospels". He argues strongly that Thomas is dependent on Matthew and Luke. According to Goodacre in an interview with his publisher, scholars are divided roughly 50/50 on whether Thomas is early and independent ...
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The ancient Hebrew calendar was based on the cycle of the moon. Passover happened at the 14th of Nissan. Since we know that 1 Nissan would have been a new moon (required for a total eclipse), we know that the moon would have been waxing and nearly full on the 14th. This makes a natural total solar eclipse impossible.
That said, it says nothing of a ...
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What an interesting find! It has some implications for the Synoptic Problem. And of course, the solution you pick influences the significance of switching the names.
Markan priority
If we assume that Mark wrote his gospel first, Matthew and Luke must have decided to swap the order of names for some reason. One possible reason could be that ...
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The order switch indicates that Matthew and Luke were more adept at handling the symbolism of the historical event than Peter and Mark were. There are two reasons for this: Peter was the least educated of the three (Matthew, Luke, Peter) and he also wrote earlier than the other two, so they had more time to develop a more detailed understanding of the events ...
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