Compositional Conventions and the Synoptic Problem

A Question Too Often Neglected

“…Recently, F. Gerald Downing has brought the question of compositional procedures to the fore as being fundamental to establishing the boundaries of what can or cannot be presumed reasonable in the positing of a synoptic model. 2 The time has come for it to be permanently brought into the arena of source criticism, both of the NT and of other related early Christian literature. The purpose of this essay is to illustrate and emphasize the fundamental importance of this question and to clarify some of the problems that emerge when it is introduced into the source-critical conceptual framework.…”

Questioning the Feasibility of the Major Synoptic Hypotheses: Scribal Memory as the Key to the Oral–Written Interface

“…However, these two hypotheses are not completely without their own problems in this regard. According to Downing (1964; 1988: 168-72), Luke’s use of Matthew on the FGH appears problematic because he needed to ‘unpick’ Matthew’s Markan material from his use of Matthew, a procedure that breaks down the cognitive units in Matthew. For example, in Lk.…”

A Modification of Honoré’S Triple-Link Model in the Synoptic Problem

“…It is more likely that, if on any occasion he was reading a section of a scroll as his primary source, or having it read to him, he would be relying on his memory to compare this with any other material, whether written or oral, that was known to him. For a discussion of this see in particular Downing (1988). So the author of gospel C might, perhaps, at any one time be looking either at a scroll of gospel A or a scroll of gospel B, but not both, and possibly, from time to time, might switch from one to the other.…”