An English Reader’s Synopsis

Zeba A. Crook

For several years now I have been developing a new Synopsis.  Synopses were originally designed (mid-19th century) to allow one to “see” the gospels “together,” thus making it easier to see where and how the gospels agree, and, unlike older gospel harmonies, also to see where they disagree.  Synopses are used mostly for studying the synoptic problem (which of Matthew, Mark, and Luke came first, and who used whom in the composition of their own gospel), though they are also helpful for redaction criticism (analysing and understanding the changes that each author has made to his source).

It goes without saying that these agreements and disagreements among the synoptic gospels are most easily seen in the Greek, but few students in seminary and theological schools are required to learn Greek.  By far the most common translated synopsis used by students is Burton Throckmorton’s Gospel Parallels.  Throckmorton’s Gospel Parallels is useful in some ways, as are other English synopses, but they are not useful for the primary reasons synopses exist:  source and redaction criticism.  Like most English translations, Throckmorton’s synopsis is done in good idiomatic English (it is a target language translation).  It is nearly impossible to show students how the gospel interrelate when Throckmorton either hides agreements by mixing up his translation (so as to make it more pleasing to the English ear), or creates agreements where there were disagreements in the Greek.  A perfect example of this is found in any of the numerous 'minor agreements' (Matthew and Luke agreeing against Mark in triple tradition pericopae).  In other words, it is impossible to show students an author’s editorial activity when all they can see is Throckmorton’s (or any other translator’s) editorial activity.

An English Reader’s Synopsis is a terrible translation; you will likely hate it on first reading.  I prefer to think of it not as a translation, but as a rendition.  A translation's goal is to tell you what something means; my rendition of the Greek text is designed to tell you what it says.  Where other translations are target language (English) translations, this project is a source language (Greek) translation.  The goal of a source language translation is to reflect, as closely as possible, what is happening in the Greek; it is not to make a pleasant or idiomatic English translation.  When people read the Bible for personal or religious reasons, they do not read a synopsis; synopses have only one real purpose -- the close analysis of the text and editorial activities of the gospel writers.  Therefore, a synopsis which does not allow one access to this information does not fulfil its raison d’etre.  An English Reader’s Synopsis gives the English reader access to the Greek, so they can see how the gospels were composed.

I invite you to look at a set of sample pages from An English Reader’s Synopsis, and each of which offers some explanation of the features that will be a part of this work.  You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader (which is free) in order to read them, as they are in PDF format.  This is all copyrighted material; please do not print or reproduce it without my permission.

News

This book is going to be published by Oxford University Press. Its expected publication date is Sept 2011. It will have a new title, tentatively A Synopsis of the Gospels in English: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Thomas and Q

What are they saying about . . . my English Reader’s Synopsis?

Stephen Carlson:  http://www.hypotyposeis.org/weblog/2004/12/zeba-crooks-proposed-synopsis.html

Mark Goodacre:  http://ntweblog.blogspot.com/2004/05/english-readers-synopsis.html

An English Reader’s Synopsis (PDF)