A Case for Markan Priority
A Case for Markan Priority
Scott McKnight
Chapter 3
The Oxford Hypothesis
“Virtually all scholars today fit either into the Griesbach or Oxford hypothesis” (94)
Keywords:
B.H. Streeter
Deconstructionism - focuses on the text rather than the author’s intention, stressing the impossibility of interpretation. This rejects the Western philosophical tradition of seeking certainty through reasoning. (Jacques Derrida was a proponent of this)
pg 66 - there is a quote from Alvin Kernan about the modern shift in education in the second half of the 20th century
The Modern Debate
Key name: Christopher Tuckett
Streeter believes that “you can’t understand a text accurately unless you know its context and its tradition-history” (67)
Griesbach hypothesis (Farmer) vs. Oxford Hypothesis (Tucket)
Dungan
Wrote about the synoptic problem. He claimed that there were four factors involved
Textual Criticism (what text is used)
Canon (which books are authoritative)
Composition (how the Gospels were created)
Hermeneutics (how the Gospels are interpreted)
Tatian, Origen and Augustine (for the next few pages, McKnight outlines Dungan’s views - at the moment I think the Dungan is a Matthean priorist)
Here, the priority of Matthew becomes orthodoxy
McKnight argues that “The rise of Matthean priority in this period was never established by carefully Synoptic texts. Instead, when Eusebius issued his canons, he took the most popular Gospel, Matthew, and put it first.” (71)
He argues that all Augustine did was try to show that Mark and Luke could be historically confirmed to Matthew
He further argues that Dungan inappropriately implies that Markan priority is grouped with anti-Semitism (maybe because the Germans were proponents of this) - though McKnight clears up that he doesn’t think Dungan meant to say that all Markan priorists are anti-Semitic.
Matthean Priority
McKnight argues that Matthean priorists “don’t consider carefully enough the
Scott McKnight
Chapter 3
The Oxford Hypothesis
“Virtually all scholars today fit either into the Griesbach or Oxford hypothesis” (94)
Keywords:
B.H. Streeter
Deconstructionism - focuses on the text rather than the author’s intention, stressing the impossibility of interpretation. This rejects the Western philosophical tradition of seeking certainty through reasoning. (Jacques Derrida was a proponent of this)
pg 66 - there is a quote from Alvin Kernan about the modern shift in education in the second half of the 20th century
The Modern Debate
Key name: Christopher Tuckett
Streeter believes that “you can’t understand a text accurately unless you know its context and its tradition-history” (67)
Griesbach hypothesis (Farmer) vs. Oxford Hypothesis (Tucket)
Dungan
Wrote about the synoptic problem. He claimed that there were four factors involved
Textual Criticism (what text is used)
Canon (which books are authoritative)
Composition (how the Gospels were created)
Hermeneutics (how the Gospels are interpreted)
Tatian, Origen and Augustine (for the next few pages, McKnight outlines Dungan’s views - at the moment I think the Dungan is a Matthean priorist)
Here, the priority of Matthew becomes orthodoxy
McKnight argues that “The rise of Matthean priority in this period was never established by carefully Synoptic texts. Instead, when Eusebius issued his canons, he took the most popular Gospel, Matthew, and put it first.” (71)
He argues that all Augustine did was try to show that Mark and Luke could be historically confirmed to Matthew
He further argues that Dungan inappropriately implies that Markan priority is grouped with anti-Semitism (maybe because the Germans were proponents of this) - though McKnight clears up that he doesn’t think Dungan meant to say that all Markan priorists are anti-Semitic.
Matthean Priority
McKnight argues that Matthean priorists “don’t consider carefully enough the