Griesbach hypothesis
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The Griesbach hypothesis is an early 19th-century solution to the synoptic problem. It gives priority to the Gospel of Matthew, portrays the gospel of Luke as based on it, and the gospel of Mark as based on both. This hypothesis has been largely discredited in favor of Markan priority and the two-source hypothesis.
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[edit] Griesbach's proposal
The Griesbach hypothesis was first expounded in the work A Demonstration that the Whole Gospel of Mark is Excerpted from the Narratives of Matthew & Luke (1789) by the German scholar Johann Jakob Griesbach (January 4, 1745 - March 24, 1812). Griesbach sees the Gospel of Matthew as the first gospel and source of the other two, and his theory is therefore a theory of dependence. According to Griesbach, the historical order of the gospels is Matthew, Luke, and Mark, entailing that Mark is dependent on both. In proposing this hypothesis, Griesbach affirms the Matthean priority, as in the Augustinian hypothesis.
Griesbach tried to meet the challenge presented by the Gospel of Mark, seeing the book as mostly as a digest and conflation, narrating the points on which Matthew and Luke agree. The Gospel of Mark appears somewhat strange to many readers, as it omits the common tradition of Matthew and Luke (Q document).
[edit] Proof from Minor Agreements
Griesbach's main support for his thesis lies in passages where Matthew and Luke agree over and against Mark (e.g. Matthew 26:68; Luke 22:64; Mark 14:65), the so-called Minor Agreements. It is unclear whether these minor passages are a mere coincidence or a proof of Lukean dependence on Matthew.
[edit] Status of the hypothesis
Today the Griesbach hypothesis is followed by only a few (W. R. Farmer 1964, B. Orchard 1976, 1982, 1983, 1987, and D. L. Dungan), but the many problems it poses make it less accepted than the more common Two-source hypothesis supported by the majority of scholars. Since Farmer prepared extensive writings arguing against the more common priority of Mark solutions and for the priority of Matthew, this solution has usually been called the Two Gospel Hypothesis because it proposes Matthew and Luke as the two main synoptic gospels with Mark as a later and less original work.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
For Griesbach's life and work, including the full text of the cited work in Latin and in English translation, cf. Bernard Orchard and Thomas R. W. Longstaff (ed.), J. J. Griesbach: Synoptic and Text-Critical Studies 1776-1976, Volume 34 in SNTS Monograph Series (Cambridge University Press, hardback 1978, paperback 2005 ISBN 0-521-02055-7).
