hi everybody fran here at new testament explained this video is a short introduction to the synoptic gospels the video will explore what the term synoptic means what the synoptic gospels are and why these gospels have been grouped together as always if you haven't already please subscribe to this channel so synoptic means seen together and the synoptic gospels are matthew mark and luke the reason that these three gospels have been grouped together and are called the synoptic gospels is that they share a lot of the same material there are some passages that are word for word the same across all three gospels and equally there are other passages where it is obvious that one gospel has taken the text from one of the other gospels and either added to it or taken away from it it is important to stress that these three gospels do have their differences they are not simply word for word the same beginning to end matthew's gospel focuses on jesus as the prophesized jewish messiah which links to topic 1.1 if you're studying at excel a-level religious studies mark's gospel focuses on jesus as the suffering servant who moves in secret amongst his people which again is something that we look at in topic 1.1 when we look at the messianic secret theory and luke presents jesus as the savior of all people including the gentiles and as you go into the second year of a level religious studies we touch on that a little bit more here then is an example that proves the point we've got the feeding of the 5000 and this is a narrative that appears in all of the four gospels if you pause this video for a moment and read the synoptic accounts you will notice they are highly highly similar however if you read john's version which is not one of the synoptic gospels you'll notice it reads quite differently to matthew mark and luke and this not only illustrates why matthew mark and luke have been grouped together but it also illustrates why john hasn't been um put into this synoptic gospel group to end i just want to pinpoint what in particular makes the synoptic gospel similar um and why john again is not considered one of the synoptic gospels so what makes matthew mark and luke similar is their distinctive style they are descriptive rather than reflective and what we mean by this is that the synoptic gospels describe jesus doing things such as performing miracles and healings encountering jewish and roman authorities casting out demons and evil spirits many of the speeches that jesus makes are short and to the point now this is quite different to the gospel according to john where jesus delivers long speeches which are commonly referred to as discourses and also in john's gospel we don't see the parables that appear in the synoptic gospels i've put on this slide that there are relatively few parables in the gospel according to john but that is up for debate with some scholars believing that there are actually no parables in john's gospel that then ends my short introduction to the synoptic gospels thank you for watching and as always please subscribe to the channel if you haven't already