Revival of Synoptic Source-Criticism

Abstract

AFTER a long lull which stretched from the end of the first World ^ War until the present, the last few years have seen renewed activity in the field of Synoptic Source-Criticism. Activity had almost ceased in this sector of New Testament studies because of the general conviction that the Two-Source theory had uncovered the ultimate documents from which these Gospels derived. Scholars had the feeling that, if any attempt to get behind those sources to an earlier stage of Gospel tradition were to have any hope of success, it must proceed according to the Form-Critical method which had been successfully exploited since 1919 by Dibelius, Bultmann, and their followers. Recently, however, a series of books and articles has appeared which, though they differ in much else, commonly challenge this general conviction. Judging by the unanimously respectful and often favorable comment which it has called forth both here and abroad, this tendency may well have reached a zenith in the recent work of L. Vaganay.