Jesus and the Synoptic Tradition

I will be teaching a course this summer on Jesus and the Synoptic Tradition at Tyndale University College. We will be focusing on the Gospel of Luke.  One of the fun things about preparing a course is choosing the text books.  These are the texts that I have chosen:

New International Biblical Commentary (NIBC), Luke By Craig A. Evans / Baker Academic Plenty of important questions vie for attention in contemporary Lucan scholarship. In this volume, Craig Evans not only demonstrates a firm grasp of them, but makes them comprehensible to laypeople. His clear writing and logical explanations lay open both difficult Lucan passages and scholarly arguments about them.

The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is By N.T. Wright / Inter-varsity Press A renewed and vigorous scholarly quest for the historical Jesus is underway. Out of his own commitment to both historical scholarship and Christian ministry, Wright challenges us to roll up our sleeves and take seriously the study of the historical Jesus. The Challenge of Jesus poses the challenge of learning to grow in our understanding of the historical Jesus within the Palestinian world of the first century, while following Jesus more faithfully into the postmodern world of the twenty-first century.

Gospel Parallels, NRSV Edition By Burton Throckmorton / Thomas Nelson This book is a side-by-side comparison of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. The parallel arrangement facilitates study of the first three Gospels, highlighting the similarities and differences in language and chronology. This completely revised edition, set in the NRSV, features a readable new type, cross-references, an updated critical apparatus, and a brief history of the transmission of the Greek New Testament. Now, instead of forcing the synoptic texts into an arbitrary timetable, this simple side-by-side alignment lets you do your own comparisons.