The Synoptic Problem
A Way Through the Maze
Mark Goodacre

Synopses Page

In order to begin to grasp the Synoptic Problem, it is essential to become familiar with the Gospel Synopsis. The Synoptic Problem: A Way Through the Maze introduces you to the Gospel Synopsis as it surveys the different kinds of material in Matthew, Mark and Luke. This page provides synopses of several passages and you can use them in conjunction with the book. Ideally, you should print these examples off and then colour them using the suggested colouring scheme. Each little synopsis on this page comes in three versions: Word pre-coloured, for downloading and printing, HTML pre-coloured, for viewing or printing and HTML ready-coloured, to check your own colouring against.

 The Synoptic Problem: A Way Through the Maze, by Mark Goodacre

This is the colouring scheme I suggest as the most intuitive. It simply uses
the three primary colours and their combinations:


  • Matthew: blue
  • Mark: red
  • Luke: yellow
    • Matthew + Mark: purple [ i.e. blue + red ]
    • Matthew + Luke: green [i.e. blue + yellow ]
    • Mark + Luke: orange [ i.e. red + yellow ]
      • Matthew + Mark + Luke: brown [ i.e. blue + red + yellow ]  

Here are the passages available for viewing or downloading on this site:

  1. Matt. 9.9 // Mark 2.14 // Luke 5.27 (Levi)

  2. Matt. 3.7-10 // Luke 3.7-9 (John the Baptist's Preaching)

  3. Matt. 7.3-5 // Luke 6.41-43 (Log and Speck)

  4. Matt. 3.13-17 // Mark 1.9-11 // Luke 3.21-22 (Baptism)

  5. Matt. 14.34-36 // Mark 6.53-56 (Healing at Gennesaret)

  6. Mark 12.41-44 // Luke 21.1-4 (Widow's Mite)

  7. Matt. 13.31-32 // Mark 4.30-32 // Luke 13.18-19 (Mustard Seed)


Read The Synoptic Problem: A Way Through the Maze

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