Dungan does a great job of expanding the conversation of what the components are of the synoptic problem. He is daring, bold, and erudite as he lays out the case for the destructive intent and impact of the modernist approach to the Bible, particularly the Gospels. At times, however, he would have better served the topic by tackling some of the more obvious objections that could be made to some of his statements. (One minor one has to do with his theory - that he admits he isn't confident of - that John held some antogonistic views of Peter. As he argues this he doesn't contend with the significant Petrology that exists in John's Gospel, but rather confining himself to the passages where Peter is often interpreted in a negative light.) In other places I would have preferred if he "connected the dots" a bit more in showing how things like Spinoza's treatise on biblical interpretation actually fathered the modernist approach to the Bible. I respect his ultimate position regarding the order of the Synoptics - Matthew, Luke, then Mark - but I am partial to the more "traditional Augustinian" solution. I would have liked if he had spent more time grappling with the better modern apologies for that solution rather than blasting some of the more myopic gospel harmonies and generally regulating most of the modern defenses of the traditional solution to the heap of Fundamentalism. Still, all in all, I learned a good deal from his generally thorough work and would recommend it, with some reservation, to the student who has concerns about the modernist critique of the Bible and who is intereseted in enhancing his understanding of the history of the synoptic problem, particularly the contemporary situation.

I bought this book thinking that it was going to help me harmonize the differences in the Sypotic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). I got more than I bargained for!

One fifth of the book (at the back end) are detailed explanatory and resourceful chapter Notes. These Notes contain an abundance of supporting evidence from antiquity, early church history, Patristic writings, Greek lexicology, and others).

The material of the book is quite dry and the primary audience seems to be biblical scholars. Since I am not a scholar, I had to rely on the back-end Notes a lot to understand the points the author was making in the respective chapters.

Nevertheless, following the three historical approaching to the Synoptic problem presented in the book, I have been fortunate (and blessed as a result) to learn a great deal about the history of the early Church, the development of Bible translations throughout the ages, and current trends in Christianity.

I would recommend this work to anyone seriously interested in Christianity (especially the Canon, Texts, Composition, and Interpretations of the Gospels).

The idea of a book on the Synoptic Gospels used to intimidate and, honestly, bore me a bit. This book, however, was not only the most interesting book I've read on the subject, but also one of the best I've read in a long time! Dungan writes very very well and is often funny, believe it or not. But what I appreciated most about this book was how it made me look at the New Testament in an entirely new light. The kinds of questions Dungan brought to the subject were the sorts of questions I thought you weren't really supposed to ask (questions about ulterior motive in Bible scholarship). A very brave and impressive book!