by jimwalton » Sat Jun 17, 2023 7:24 pm
It is generally thought that they played off the same source material: oral accounts of Jesus's life and teaching, possibly a document (or several) in existence, and by the testimony of the same people (disciples, eyewitnesses, Jesus's family, etc.). It's similar to a person writing a biography of Ronald Reagan today. They are inevitably going to tap into the same material and people.
But they didn't copy from one another. Very few of the texts are word-for-word, grammatically exactly the same. Even if Matthew and Luke tapped off of Mark, which is largely believed to be the case, but unproven and some disagree), Matthew and Luke generally expressed it in their own style.
It is generally thought that they played off the same source material: oral accounts of Jesus's life and teaching, possibly a document (or several) in existence, and by the testimony of the same people (disciples, eyewitnesses, Jesus's family, etc.). It's similar to a person writing a biography of Ronald Reagan today. They are inevitably going to tap into the same material and people.
But they didn't copy from one another. Very few of the texts are word-for-word, grammatically exactly the same. Even if Matthew and Luke tapped off of Mark, which is largely believed to be the case, but unproven and some disagree), Matthew and Luke generally expressed it in their own style.