Right now I'm studying the Life of the Messiah from a Jewish Perspective. The Bible was written by God through Jews. Jesus was Jew, He came to reach the Jewish people and He lived and taught in a 1st century Jewish culture. To truly understand the Gospels and the teaching of Jesus it is important to understand the Jewish background!
So many people have questions about the Synoptic Gospels because different accounts are recorded in one and not in another and different details are given about certain accounts. Below is an explanation from Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum which greatly helped me understand the variant between the Synoptic Gospels! Its so exciting to me to learn!
The
sources of Knowledge and Luke's prologue.
Lets think in terms of a circle and everything Jesus ever said, and
everything He ever did and all His actions are in this circle. Jesus' entire life is within this
circle. In John
21: 25
it is said that everything that Jesus did is not written in this book because
the world would not be able to contain all that would be written. So each of the gospel writers would have to
be selective in everything they chose to write in their gospel. So the writer would choose what to record
and what not to record. So what would be the basis of what they would pull out
of the circle and record or not record.
The basis was on their particular theme as to what they chose to use or
not to use. Each gospel writer had a
theme as to what he wanted to develop.
So Matthew had a particular theme he wanted to develop and he looks
inside the circle at everything Jesus said and did and selects teaching point
A, as this will help him to develop his theme.
Then he looks at point B, but
this point does not help him with his theme so he skips it. He then looks at point C and decides to use
this point to develop his theme. Then
Mark comes along with his theme for his book and he looks at point A, and it is
not beneficial to put forth his theme.
So where this was helpful to Matthew but it is not helpful for
Mark. Then we go to point B, which was
of no benefit to Matthew, is beneficial to Mark and his theme, so he pulls it
out and uses it in his gospel. Then we
look at point C, which was beneficial to Matthew and is beneficial to Mark, so
they both use point C in their gospel.
Now we see that Matthew and Mark may use the same point, but what will
be different is their theme and the way they use it and write about it will be
a little different from each other because they are looking at that point from
the prospective of their individual theme.
The Gospels are not contradictory but supplemental.
Matthew: A and C
Mark: B and C
Luke: A, B and C
