Synoptic Problem
E57314
The Synoptic Problem is the scholarly investigation into the literary relationships and sources behind the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, which share extensive overlapping content and structure.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Synoptic Problem canonical | 5 |
| Synoptic problem | 3 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T454003 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Synoptic Problem Context triple: [Synoptic Gospels, centralQuestion, Synoptic Problem]
-
A.
Synoptic Gospels
The Synoptic Gospels are the New Testament books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, which present closely related accounts of the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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B.
Alexandrian text-type
The Alexandrian text-type is a family of early and highly regarded New Testament manuscript traditions characterized by concise, less harmonized readings and often considered closest to the original text by many textual critics.
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C.
Byzantine text-type
The Byzantine text-type is a major textual tradition of the Greek New Testament characterized by a relatively uniform and later standardized form of the text that became dominant in the medieval Byzantine Empire.
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D.
Docetism
Docetism is an early Christian heresy that claimed Christ only seemed to have a physical body and to suffer, denying the true humanity of Jesus.
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E.
Commentary on the Epistles of Paul
Commentary on the Epistles of Paul is a biblical exegesis traditionally attributed to the early Christian theologian Pelagius, offering one of the earliest Latin commentaries on Paul’s letters and reflecting the theological debates of late antiquity.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Synoptic Problem Target entity description: The Synoptic Problem is the scholarly investigation into the literary relationships and sources behind the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, which share extensive overlapping content and structure.
-
A.
Synoptic Gospels
The Synoptic Gospels are the New Testament books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, which present closely related accounts of the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
-
B.
Alexandrian text-type
The Alexandrian text-type is a family of early and highly regarded New Testament manuscript traditions characterized by concise, less harmonized readings and often considered closest to the original text by many textual critics.
-
C.
Byzantine text-type
The Byzantine text-type is a major textual tradition of the Greek New Testament characterized by a relatively uniform and later standardized form of the text that became dominant in the medieval Byzantine Empire.
-
D.
Docetism
Docetism is an early Christian heresy that claimed Christ only seemed to have a physical body and to suffer, denying the true humanity of Jesus.
-
E.
Commentary on the Epistles of Paul
Commentary on the Epistles of Paul is a biblical exegesis traditionally attributed to the early Christian theologian Pelagius, offering one of the earliest Latin commentaries on Paul’s letters and reflecting the theological debates of late antiquity.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (50)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
New Testament studies issue
ⓘ
biblical studies topic ⓘ textual relationship problem ⓘ |
| aimsToExplain |
literary interdependence of the Synoptic Gospels
ⓘ
origin of shared sayings and narratives ⓘ sequence of composition of the Synoptic Gospels ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs | problem of the Synoptic Gospels ⓘ |
| concerns |
Gospel of Luke
ⓘ
Gospel of Mark ⓘ Gospel of Matthew ⓘ |
| fieldOfStudy | literary relationships among the Synoptic Gospels ⓘ |
| focusesOn |
differences among the Synoptic Gospels
ⓘ
literary dependence among the Synoptic Gospels ⓘ order of pericopes in the Synoptic Gospels ⓘ overlapping content of Matthew, Mark, and Luke ⓘ similarities among the Synoptic Gospels ⓘ sources used by the Synoptic evangelists ⓘ |
| hasKeyConcept |
Augustinian hypothesis
ⓘ
Farrer hypothesis ⓘ Griesbach hypothesis ⓘ Lukan priority ⓘ Markan priority ⓘ Matthean priority ⓘ Q source ⓘ
linked to:
Q source (hypothetical)
double tradition ⓘ minor agreements ⓘ triple tradition ⓘ two-source hypothesis ⓘ
linked to:
Q source hypothesis
|
| hasKeyQuestion |
Did the Synoptic evangelists use common written sources?
ⓘ
How should agreements and disagreements in order be explained? ⓘ How should agreements and disagreements in wording be explained? ⓘ What is the direction of literary dependence among the Synoptics? ⓘ What sources underlie the double tradition material? ⓘ What sources underlie the triple tradition material? ⓘ Which Synoptic Gospel was written first? ⓘ |
| involves |
comparison of parallel passages
ⓘ
form criticism ⓘ redaction criticism ⓘ source criticism ⓘ |
| methodUsed |
linguistic analysis of Greek text
ⓘ
statistical analysis of verbal agreements ⓘ synopsis comparison ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
Gospel sources
ⓘ
New Testament canon formation ⓘ Synoptic Gospels ⓘ historical Jesus research ⓘ |
| studiedBy |
New Testament scholars
ⓘ
linked to:
New Testament scholarship
biblical theologians ⓘ historical Jesus researchers ⓘ textual critics ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Synoptic Problem Description of subject: The Synoptic Problem is the scholarly investigation into the literary relationships and sources behind the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, which share extensive overlapping content and structure.
Referenced by (8)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Synoptic Problem
linked to: Synoptic Problem
linked to: Synoptic Problem