Studying the Synoptic Gospels
by E. P. Sanders, Margaret Davies

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Book Reviews of Studying the Synoptic Gospels

Book Review: Searching for the Gospel Truth
Summary: 5 Stars

The analysis of the Synoptic Problem
is particularly good. Each theory is studied in detail, its strong
and weak points weighed and assessed, and a final judgment
passed. They finally settle upon a modified form of the Goulder
hypothesis, sometimes known as Mark without Q. Of the currently
fashionable literature on the reconstruction of Q, they say:
"This work is mostly of curiosity value, since it shows how far a
hypothesis can be pushed despite its lack of fundamental
support."

The middle sections on the various types of criticism
and Gospel genre are not as good, the analysis being turgid and
sometimes opaque, but they redeem themselves when they go questing for
the historical Jesus. They "cross examine" the Gospels,
using four precise tests for historicity. The four tests put one in
mind of the Jesus Seminar's "seven pillars of scholarly
wisdom". The Jesus Seminar's seven pillars are not nearly as
well-conceived nor as well-applied as Sanders and Davies' four tests.
The conclusions Sanders and Davies draw at the end of their quest are
astonishingly circumspect when compared to the findings of most
contemporary questers after the historical Jesus.

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