A History of the Synoptic Problem: The Canon, the Text, the Composition, and the Interpretation of the Gospels »

Scholars and believers from the first century to the present have been troubled by the fact that differing, often sharply divergent, accounts of Jesus' life can be found in the Gospels. According to the Jesus Seminar, these Gospels are all based on the hypothetical Gospel of Q, supposedly a lost collection of Jesus' teachings. But what if the Jesus Seminar is wrong? What if the Gospel of Q simply never existed and was just invented, out of necessity, to resolve the tensions between Matthew, Mark, and Luke? In A History of the Synoptic Problem, David Laird Dungan provides a comprehensive history of this contentious debate from its beginning. The result is a book that challenges the status quo and its insistence on the priority of Mark and the existence of Q.

The Christian Science Monitor - Sara Gallant

Dungan has provided a readable survey of this debate from its beginning to the present day. His questions are as valuable as his answers.