Again, it seems unlikely that the author of Mark would have omitted such significant material had he known about it. Matthew and Luke, then, took narratives from Mark and combined them Q material.
If Mark was written first, then Matthew and Luke had to be written later. Our final question, then, is one of successive dependence. Were Matthew and Luke written independently of each other - known as the “Two Source Hypothesis” - or did one depend on the other as a source?
Scholars who believe in Q’s existence (this is the vast majority) generally think they were written independently. Scholars who don’t believe in Q, such as Mark Goodacre, believe that Luke used Matthew as a source. The scholarly acceptance of Marcan Priority while maintaining that Luke used Matthew is known as the “Farrer Theory.”
Goodacre would argue that certain features in Luke’s Gospel, such as his use of Matthean wording or arrangement of material not found in Mark, suggest direct dependence on Matthew. Goodacre would also point to Luke’s preface possibly implying knowledge of and reference to the Gospel of Matthew.
Another scholar named Alan Garrow promotes a case for Matthew using Luke as a source, known as the “Matthew Conflator Hypothesis.” Garrow has presented a paper and a series of videos explaining the hypothesis, which garnered positive feedback from Richard Bauckham and Chris Tilling, two widely respected biblical scholars. The hypothesis points to various passages in Matthew that seem to show elements of material from Mark and Luke combined. In fact, recently on Bart’s Blog a proponent of Garrow’s arguments became so convinced that he offered $1,000 to charity if anyone could find the holes in Garrow’s arguments. As you can see, it is a fun and intriguing area of study, and many people passionately hold to their theories that solve the synoptic problem.
It is important to note that neither the Farrer Theory or the Matthew Conflator Hypothesis are as widely accepted as the Two-Source Hypothesis, and scholarly debates continue regarding the relationships between the Synoptic Gospels.
What is the synoptic problem? It is the question of the literary relationship between Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The three share so much material, often verbatim, that there has to be some kind of connection between them.
The vast majority of scholars agree that Mark was our first written Gospel (written about 70 CE). They also agree that Matthew and Luke were written later (80-120 CE) and that they used Mark as a source.
In addition, most scholars think Matthew and Luke used another source called Q that is lost to us now. This explains the material shared by Matthew and Luke but absent in Mark.
Q likely began as oral traditions that were eventually written down. We can reconstruct Q by looking at what Matthew and Luke share that is not in Mark.
