This is a continuation of my discussion of the Synoptic problem here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4v_tisDAj8&t=255s
My big point in both videos is to urge you *not* to accept this false dilemma: Either the Synoptic Gospels are totally independent from each other or else, wherever the story is found in Mark and Matthew or Luke has similar wording, Mark is the *only* factual source. While verbal difference is *one* way of indicating factual independence, it is not absolutely necessary. We find repeatedly that Matthew and Luke have details not found in Mark even in passages that are quite similar to Mark in wording. Sometimes these extra details are confirmed by undesigned coincidences. I talked about several of these in the earlier discussion of the Synoptic problem. Here I give another example: Luke's mention of Bethsaida as the location of the feeding of the five thousand. Despite striking similarities of wording in portions of the narrative to Mark's wording, Luke alone mentions Bethsaida in this connection. Don't let references to the Synoptic problem, the two-source hypothesis, and Markan priority be used to bludgeon you into erasing Luke and Matthew as independent sources of information. No, not even when there is similar wording to Mark.
Originally published on YouTube May 29, 2022