What is the Synoptic Question?

The Synoptic Question refers to the scholarly inquiry into the similarities and differences among the first three Gospels of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. These Gospels are called "Synoptic" because they include many of the same stories, often with similar Wording and sequence, which raises questions about their sources and the relationships among them. Scholars propose various hypotheses, including the Two-Source Hypothesis, which suggests that Mark was written first and that Matthew and Luke independently used Mark and a common source (Q) for their accounts. The Synoptic Question is fundamental to understanding the development of the Gospel narrative and the historical Jesus.