The Gospel Sources Brain Teaser 
Jackson Snyder, July 20, 1991

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Essays

Scholars believe that the gospel writers in the Bible used a variety of sources in completing their work of documenting the works and sayings of Jesus. Most of their sources are unknown to us today, but a few are (speculatively). With the following clues, construct a flowchart of gospel sources culminating in the four canonical gospels. Good luck!

1. Mark is the shortest and probably oldest of the four.

2. Matthew includes most of Mark.

3. Luke also includes most of Mark.

4. Matthew and Luke include many of the same sayings of Jesus.

5. Yet chances are that Matthew never read Luke

6. and Luke never read Matthew.

7. Papias, and early witness, writes that Matthew the disciple wrote down the sayings of Jesus in Hebrew.

8. Yet scholars say that the Gospel of Matthew we now have was surely composed in Greek.

7. Matthew, Mark, and Luke each have unique materials.

8. John is quite different than the rest, but John's "passion" follows the same sequence of events as Mark.

9. There surely were early oral traditions and written sources.  

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