Gospel Priority
The Sanders List

E P Sanders

We have previously found reason to conclude that Mark was the earliest of the three Synoptics. This conclusion is widely accepted at present, but some have pointed to sets of parallel passages in which the Matthean or Lukan member seems to be earlier than the Markan one. At the end of Tendencies (1969), E P Sanders listed 34 such instances, but without further comment or analysis of his own. Ed tells us that since that time, and despite its being reprinted in Bellinzoni (1985) as a major item in the Markan Priority debate, no one has ever confronted that list item by item, and tried to discover how strong the implied argument against Markan Priority might actually be.

With Ed's permission and encouragement, we here undertake that task. Below are given (1) the Sanders number, (2) the passages in question, and (3) our conclusion as to whether Markan Priority is Upheld (or Not Challenged), is left Indeterminate, or is Refuted. Clicking on a passage will lead to the argument for that verdict. The summaries of the position challenging Markan priority are those of Sanders; our additions, where present, are in [brackets].

Much of our discussion turns on intrinsically likely directionalities. Later versions may rationalize previous narratives, may avoid perceived vulgarities, may suppress statements hostile to the disciples or to Jesus's family or enhance the dignity of those persons, may diminish the role of John the Baptist and emphasize the role of Jesus, or may attribute greater power or less ambiguous divinity to Jesus. These arguments are directly developed in the Trajectories section, where they are found to lead to the general Gospel sequence Mk > Mt > Lk > Acts > Jn. The passages in this section may be thought of as microstudies of the same problem, but based on words rather than large themes.

Such general tendencies may well be overridden in particular passages for reasons sufficient to the writers of those passages, whether or not those reasons are apparent to modern analysis. There may therefore be conflicting indications in our final results. That result is even to be expected. But we do not expect that the entire evolution of thought and text in early Christianity will be based on the opposite tendencies: increasing reduction of Jesus to merely human status, increasing denigration of his family and followers, increasing emphasis on John the Baptist, the introduction of verbal vulgarities, or the creation of narratively problematic versions of previously satisfactory stories. We expect that, by and large, the main trajectories will hold. If they hold in the majority of cases considered below, we will consider that the majority indication is reliable.

Markan Priority is:

At the end of his list, Ed appended a further 12 sets of passages taken from Stanton. We will consider the Stanton list separately.

Back to Gospel Priority Index Page

25 Sept 2005 / Contact The Project / Exit to Synoptica Page