2026.01.01 | Mark Goodacre. The Fourth Synoptic Gospel: John’s Knowledge of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Eerdmans, 2025. 191 pp. $29.99.
Goodacre advances a straightforward thesis: John’s Gospel was written with an awareness of the Synoptic Gospels. More specifically, Goodacre argues that the author of this Gospel “knew, used, presupposed, and transformed the Synoptics” (p. ix). For Goodacre, “the significant literary parallels between the Synoptic Gospels and John” represent good enough evidence to conclude that John was familiar with the final form of these texts. In other words, “the author of the Fourth Gospel did not use Synoptic-like traditions but the Synoptic Gospels themselves” (p. 17).
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Biblical and Early Christian Studies 