Customer Reviews

Synopsis of the Four Gospels: Completely Revised on the Basis of the Greek Text of the Nestle-Aland, 26th Edition, and Greek New Testament, 3rd Edition, English Edition

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Presumably, anyone looking for a synoptic parallel knows what what it's for, but in case not, a brief description might be useful. This book lines up the various pericopes from each gospel in parallel columns, so that their rendition in each can be compared. This allows readers better to discern small, subtle differences among them, and to determine more easily, for instance, who used what source, redaction, theology, and so forth...for instance, Q material is readily apparent when you see that Matthew and Luke contain identical material that isn't present in Mark, and to see this, you don't have to flip back and forth from one gospel to another, because they're all lined up for you, side by side.

One confusing thing about this book is that there is notational nomenclature our the kazoo, which isn't very well explained. For instance, you will notice that the Gospel names at the head of each column is occasionally bolded. Sometimes all of them are. Sometimes they're bracketed. I couldn't find anything in the book to explain this. Had my seminar prof. not explained them, I'd still be in the dark.

That said, the text is well referenced. This isn't a "study" guide, so it isn't glossed, but it is footnoted with plenty of relevant citations. Dubious text--or text that is widely accepted as having been added by later copyists--is footnoted...for instance, the "sweat like blood" verse in Luke's rendition of the Gethsemane pericope.

For anyone embarking on a serious of analysis of the synoptic gospels (and John), this book is a great tool.

just to clarify some of the other reviews, please note that this book is the "ENGLISH-ONLY TEXT", and it does not have the Greek features that some of the reviewers claim that it has. There is a greek/english version as well, and THAT is what they refer to.

:-)

This synopsis edition of the four canonical gospels follows the text of the Revised Standard Version, one of the more accepted versions of the Bible in the scholarship of the last generation of Biblical scholars. It presents the four canonical gospels in parallel format, following the text from the beginning, and going more or less in chronological order (there are places where the combination of texts is ambiguous at best).

Kurt Aland, the editor of this text, is also one of the major editors of note of the Greek New Testament - most authoritative versions of the Greek New Testament have Aland's work in it somewhere, if not as the chief editor, then certainly as an influence. Aland used the Greek New Testament (Nestle-Aland 26th Edition) as the basis for revising the text here, although the bulk of the text comes from the RSV. This text is an English-only version - there is an edition that couples the English version with the Greek.

One of the most useful features of this text, as opposed to other synopses, is that it includes all four gospels, rather than just the three synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Synoptic is a word that can be readily understood by taking it apart into pieces - syn-, as in synonym, meaning roughly 'the same', and optic, as in the optic nerve, meaning roughly 'to see' or even 'eye' - synoptic can mean 'seeing with the same eye.' Yet, those who read the three synoptics know that, even though they parallel, they are far from exact matches. The gospel of John has a different eye on the gospel topic altogether - including it in a text such as this shows where parallels can be drawn, and highlights the unique quality of John, as well as the unique attributes of the synoptics.

Throughout the text, just as in any good study bible, Aland marks the references and possible attributions to Hebrew scripture texts. There are indexes to the gospels and the complete New Testament at the end.

One of the uses of this kind of text for the 'average' user (as opposed to the scholar or student, who might be more interested in minor textual variants) is examining the gospels side-by-side to see what is included and omitted from the different books. For example, we are using this text at my retirement centre as part of the Advent Bible Study, looking at the Christmas stories in the gospels. One can see immediately the variations in the text are significant. Mark has no Christmas story at all - the first appearance of Jesus is as a full-grown man, from Galilee (not Bethlehem), being baptised by John. Matthew begins with a genealogy of Jesus (via Joseph) going back to Abraham, paralleled a few chapters later in Luke, who has a genealogy going back to Adam (with different names scattered throughout). Matthew lacks the travel from Galilee to Bethlehem - the family is already there; Matthew also lacks the manger scene and the shepherds. Luke lacks the wise men, but includes extensive and poetic monologue/dialogue from Mary, who is silent in the early portion of Matthew. Smaller differences also appear - in Matthew, angels always speak to people in dreams; in Luke, they seem to make 'real life' appearances.

The variations can go on and on; rather like taking down the stories of different people who witness the same event, or recording the impressions of people who read the same book, the records might be different but each valid and possessing integrity in its own right.

This is a very practical and handy text to have, examining the four gospels in a way that encourages further study and reflection.

I was confused when looking for the greek and english version of this book because Amazon carries both the greek and english version plus the english only version. However, the reviews for the two books are exactly the same. The greek and english version has the ISBN# 3438054051 and is 700+ pages, where the english only version has a different ISBN# is has half the number of pages. Hope this helps you in your buying and saves you the 15 minutes I lost scratching my head.

This volume represents the best effort by NT scholar Kurt Aland to arrange in chronological order the events recorded in the Gospels. Though this would in the hands of any scholar involve some degree of interpretation, the order here is largely based on that of the Gospel of Mark, which is generally thought to have provided much of the chronology for the writers of Matthew and Luke.

If one wants to gain the best possible understanding of the gospels as a whole and of the uniqueness of each individual gospel, a tool such as this is invaluable. One could search out parallel passages in each gospel in one's own Bible, but it is much easier to use a tool such as this. Sometimes the differences are minor, sometimes more substantial. Reading through the gospels in this edition will also highlight how different Luke, with its emphasis on the poor and constant critique of the wealthy, is from Matthew and Mark, or John from the other three.

The translation used is the Revised Standard Version, which is widely acknowledged to be one of the most accurate. Many fundamentalists dislike it because of the way it translates some portions of the Old Testament that in the KJV had been translated in a way to prefigure the New Testament, but even fundamentalists have not questioned the accuracy of the NT translation. Footnotes allude to some variants among the Greek manuscripts, while end material includes a helpful outline of the contents of the four gospels and an index of gospel passages.

A word about the English only versus the Greek-English. If you are a very serious student of the NT with facility in Greek, you should get the twin language version. My own Greek is very rusty and I found the very large Greek-English edition to be unwieldy and hard to use. Even if you own the Greek-English edition, I would recommend the English only edition. It is comparatively inexpensive and I find it far easier to use in every way. But like I said, my Greek at this point of my life is pretty weak. I retain enough to follow a discussion of Greek terms in commentaries, but not enough to read on my own.

After a couple of good translations of the Bible, a good Bible dictionary, and a Bible atlas, this is the New Testament tool that I most frequently use and most highly recommend.

This book has been around for over 25 years, yet it is considered one of the best synoptics. This book is perfect for the bible student, who wants to gain a grasp on the Greek language in terms of the Gospels. On one side of the page is all four gospels in the Greek, while the other side has the English equivalent. This will help the student compare and contrast the Gospels.

A synopsis is a book which puts the the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) in columns, so that one can see more readily the agreements, disagreements, omissions, changes, etc. amongst them. Really good synopses try to integrate the Gospel of John as well. This is a really good synopsis. Kurt Aland's work is known for its quality and scholarship. Not everyone would need this book--only those who would be interested in studying the Sacred Scriptures more deeply in a technical manner. Since Aland's synopsis has been completely translated into English, it would best suit people like seminarians, pastors, or undergrads/lower-level graduate students. This is a nice volume at a good price. Well worth having in a Bible student's pile of books.

As others have clarified, this review is for the English-only version of Aland's synopsis. I just went through this book for a seminary class on the Gospels, and it is truly an amazing resource.

Aland aligns the four gospels in parallel with each other, so that every time the reader encounters a particular story from one Gospel account, the analogous portion of the same story from any of the other Gospels appears alongside it in another column. And if a story is unique to one Gospel, then the other three columns are blank.

My study of this book has shed amazing light on the life of Jesus, as I have previously only read about Him from one Gospel or another. But reading these stories in parallel with each other provides a fullness to our understanding that is simply impossible when read in isolation.

My only critique is that some of the formatting seemed unnecessarily cumbersome. The footnotes are so prominent as to be almost overwhelming, and some of the spacing was strangely irregular.

Of course, when used for its presumed purpose as a reference book, those logistical issues become less problematic. Ultimately, this is not written to provide devotional readings, and I would not recommend anyone to simply sit down and plow through this entire book. However, for anyone with the task of preaching and teaching from the Gospels or for anyone who simply wants to understand the life of Jesus more fully, I cannot imagine a book that would provide a better way to compare the four Gospels than this.

There are three very good books which compare the texts of the Gospels. The less expensive one, comparing the three synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) by Burton H Throckmorton, Jr. is the one you may be most inclined to get, since it costs about $22 from Amazon, compared to a "new" price of $145 for the Synopsis of the Four Gospels, English Edition edited by Kurt Aland. It's important to specify "English Edition" as there is a Greek edition as well, with titles an explanatory notes in German (but with English titles in small print off to the left, with Latin titles off to the right.)! If you do not know German, you may not want the Greek edition. However, if you are intent on comparing the Greek across the Gospels, you may wish to go for it anyway. It may be a very nice way to exercise your Greek. All the verse numbers are, of course, language independent, and the Gospel names are virtually the same in German and English.

The Throckmorton is based on particular English translations. The Fifth Edition is based on the NRSV, which should work well for most Protestant and many Catholic churches. The Aland is based on the RSV; however, it includes notes on the differences between translations in the KJV of 1611, the Catholic Edition of the RSV, the English Revised Version of 1881, and the American Standard Version of 1901. Some of these may not be useful to most people, but the comparison with the KJV will recoup some famous phrases which may have been lost in modern translations, such as "generation of vipers", replaced by "brood of vipers" in 20th century translations.

Before going any further, I suggest that unlike the Concordance, modern Bible software such as Bibleworks has not replaced this style of book. To my knowledge there is no way to automatically line up corresponding parts of two or more Gospels. So, this is still worth having, especially for doing exegesis on the Synoptics.

One obvious difference between the two is that Aland includes all four Gospels. Until you get to the Passion scenes, there is precious little parallel between John and the other three, but where there is, it has interest. And, a comparison of how they treat the passion and resurrection is especially interesting. To Throckmorton's benefit, he includes an outline of the parallels at the beginning of the book. This allows you to locate the names of episodes and find them quickly, by page. Aland includes a very similar index, at the rear of the book. Aland also has an index to all Gospel passages, in Chapter and verse order. Thus, you have two different ways of locating a specific pericope. In Throckmorton, there is only a list of Pericope titles, no list of verses.

Since Throckmorton uses the NRSV, you will find no discrepancies' with the Bible you are likely to be carrying. If you compare the Cleansing of the Temple pericope in both, for example, Matthew 21:12 in the ESV will say "...entered the temple of God." while the NRSV will say "...entered the temple." Throckmorton will have a note saying that some sources add the "of God". Aland will say that "Other ancient authorities omit `of God'". This pericope is one of the few which occur in roughly equal detail in all four Gospels, except that in John, it occurs in the beginning of Jesus' ministry, not near the end. One of the first things you notice (this is true of John in general) is that John's account has just a tad more concrete detail (he includes the fact that the merchandise was oxen and sheep and pigeons) than Mark, for example, which is the most complete version in the Synoptics.

Here, we also see a virtue of the Aland who repeats whole texts (in smaller type) when the pericope is outside their main line of narrative. All four appear in Pericope 25, in the main line for John. Parts occur again in Pericope 276 The Question About Authority, where John 2:18 - 22 is reproduced, in small type. Throckmorton has a similar feature, but only for the Synoptics.

This brings up a point which may be important if you have trouble with fine print. Throckmorton's print averages 12-13 characters per inch while Aland's averages 15 - 17 characters per inch. Better the version you can read than the one you can't read.

Throckmorton has an index of non-canonical parallels entirely absent from Aland. This may be of little use to anyone but scholars (or maybe pastors who want to mix things up a bit). I happened to check one of these in the II Clement (part of the Apostolic Fathers) and as long as your edition of II Cement is fully numbered (I looked in Bart Ehrman's Loeb Translation), you should have no trouble finding the parallel. (But the Loeb edition of II Clement also had that cross-reference, so it was not necessary to have Throckmorton, if you were reading II Clement.

For the sake of completeness, I really prefer the Aland, but you may have other requirements, such as cost or readability.

This is absolutely brilliant and a "must have" for any New Testament scholar/student. This is why it remains a classic.