New Testament Synopsis

Vol. 1: A Mimetic Synopsis of Four Synoptic Gospels (Q+, Mark, Matthew, and Luke)
Imitations of Deuteronomy, Homer, and Athenian Tragedies

Vol. 2: A Mimetic Syncrisis of the Acts of the Apostles
Imitations of Homer and Euripides and Rivalry with the Aeneid

Vol. 3: A Mimetic Synopsis of Three Gospels of John
Imitations of the Synoptics and Euripides’ Bacchae

About this book

I wrote these volumes with the intention of making them the most important books ever written on Q and the canonical Gospels by rethinking how a synopsis might be truly intertextual. No earlier synopsis includes a column for Q—certainly not Q+ as I reconstruct it. No earlier synopsis organizes the columns chronologically to create a diachronic mapping of the Synoptic tradition. No previous synopsis provides translations of potential literary models not only from the Septuagint but even more importantly from Greek poetry, especially the Homeric epics. No other synopsis has suggested that the evangelists Mark and Luke wrote to rival Vergil’s Aeneid (this project is most obvious in Acts). No previous book on the Fourth Gospel has presented its three compositional strata in parallel columns for synoptic comparison. 

In other words, these major innovations represent a watershed in the academic study of the Gospels. These three volumes thus permit readers to make their own judgments about the value of these ancient texts for understanding the historical Jesus, assessing the existence and value of an extensive lost Gospel, how best to solve the Synoptic Problem, and so on. It is my goal to revolutionize Gospel scholarship, but also to show how the Christian Church has so fundamentally lost touch with the cultural sophistication of its foundational literature.