Gospel Plagiarism

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Coincidences are a strange instance. They may seem completely uncalled for and uncommon; scholars may say that the similarities between the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are just that: uncalled for and uncommon. This plagiarism issue can be summed up with “the Synoptic Problem”, making the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke the synoptic gospels. The problem shows how several passages of the three gospels have the same wording, often in the same order. However, the similarities balance out with the vast differences between what is and is not included. The Gospel of Mark contains the largest number of shared passages between Matthew and Luke. Numerous comparative pieces of literature exist with columns of each text (synoptic parallels), where Mark can typically found in the middle, showing the shared ideas between the other two gospels. The Gospel of Mark, although mainly composed of shared passages, lacks anything mentioning Jesus’ birth and early life, two extremely important aspects of Jesus’ life. Luke and Matthew both include these, yet with unquestionably different accounts. The similarities begin with the baptism of Jesus. Both Matthew and Mark agree that Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist, in the Jordan, after arriving from Galilee (Matthew 3:13, Mark 1:9). From there all three gospels have a…show more content…
Once Judas betrays Jesus, Jesus is brought before Pilate, also referred to as the governor, and questioned in respect to his accused crimes. Pilate asks of him “Are you the King of the Jews?” and Jesus answers “You say so” (Mark 15:2, Matthew 27:11, Luke 23:3). Across all of the synoptic gospels, quotes hold true with almost the exact same wording in every case. Even the discrepancies in quotes are only differences in a few words that hardly change the meaning. These quotes again present strange coincidences between gospels written by presumably different authors in different

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