Customer Reviews

A History of the Synoptic Problem: The Canon, the Text, the Composition, and the Interpretation of the Gospels (Biotechnology Annual Review)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm not a Bible Scholar, but I am a very well read minister. I must confess that, having read many books on this subject, I saw things in Dungan's book I'd never seen or heard of anywhere else. I sat and read it in a bookstore for hours before I bought it. I don't agree with it 100% -- but he sure does give a feast for thought.

Dungan does a great job of expanding the conversation of what the components are of the synoptic problem. He is daring, bold, and erudite as he lays out the case for the destructive intent and impact of the modernist approach to the Bible, particularly the Gospels. At times, however, he would have better served the topic by tackling some of the more obvious objections that could be made to some of his statements. (One minor one has to do with his theory - that he admits he isn't confident of - that John held some antogonistic views of Peter. As he argues this he doesn't contend with the significant Petrology that exists in John's Gospel, but rather confining himself to the passages where Peter is often interpreted in a negative light.) In other places I would have preferred if he "connected the dots" a bit more in showing how things like Spinoza's treatise on biblical interpretation actually fathered the modernist approach to the Bible. I respect his ultimate position regarding the order of the Synoptics - Matthew, Luke, then Mark - but I am partial to the more "traditional Augustinian" solution. I would have liked if he had spent more time grappling with the better modern apologies for that solution rather than blasting some of the more myopic gospel harmonies and generally regulating most of the modern defenses of the traditional solution to the heap of Fundamentalism. Still, all in all, I learned a good deal from his generally thorough work and would recommend it, with some reservation, to the student who has concerns about the modernist critique of the Bible and who is intereseted in enhancing his understanding of the history of the synoptic problem, particularly the contemporary situation.

I bought this book thinking that it was going to help me harmonize the differences in the Sypotic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). I got more than I bargained for!

One fifth of the book (at the back end) are detailed explanatory and resourceful chapter Notes. These Notes contain an abundance of supporting evidence and explanations from antiquity, early church history, Patristic writings, Greek lexicology, and others).

The material of the book is quite dry and the primary audience seems to be biblical scholars. Since I am not a scholar, I had to rely on the back-end Notes a lot to understand the points the author was making in the respective chapters.

Nevertheless, following the three historical approaching to the Synoptic problem presented in the book, I have been fortunate (and blessed as a result) to learn a great deal about the history of the early Church, the development of Bible translations throughout the ages, and current trends in Christianity.

I would recommend this work to anyone seriously interested in Christianity (especially the canon, text, composition, and interpretations of the Gospels).

Excellent history of Synoptic Problem, going right back to biblical times, unlike most similar reviews which only start at about the 18th century.

from the Yale Press. I did not realize this until I had purchase this book used for $40. Used books suit me fine, but if you prefer a new copy for minimally more expense, then you might want to check it out.

I have no experience buying from the Yale Press, but buying from Amazon has always been pleasant.

I am more than a little surprised that other reviewers gave this five stars. The general lay out, indentation, bullet points, nu mbering etc was bewildering - there simply was no proper schematic to the book. The book read like a book in progress and in need of a great deal of polish. Nonetheless, Dungan has some vey interesting ideas about the development of modern hermeunetics, namely that in its worst form, it follows the rules of Spinoza whose subtext was the destruction of the Bible as the word of God. And, that fundamnetalists are in truth followers of John Locke' subjectivist philosopy. Its interesting that he considers that catholics scholars such as Raymond Brown have avoided the worst excess of the modern approach. Overall a little disappointing.