The Synoptic Problem, and Fundies

[Skelron]

Recently I started thinking back for no reason, and recalled, again for no real reason but boredom, some of my A-Level stuff from Five years ago. One of the areas I studied was Christian Theology, and a boring module that involved studying the Gospels. One of the key areaswe studied in this year long module was known as 'The Synoptic Problem' The idea that Matthew, mark and Luke are so similar yet different.

The Synoptic problem was accounting for these differances, not just in what was recorded but how they where recorded. (The Sermon on the Mount for example in Matthew is exactly that the Sermon on the mount. In the other two Synoptic Gospels the Sermon is spread out more, and not presented as a Sermon. In short it appears Matthew edited several Sayings from Jesus and put them all as one big Event to give them more emphasis)

Now Then my question is really how do Fundys deal with the Synoptic Problem, I mean by examining the Three Gospels it is pretty clear that some re-interpretation is being done by the Gospel writers, events are re-ordered, etc. Yet to the Fundy the Bible is the infalliable word of God isn't it? How then can they differ covering the same event?

The Synoptic Problem
This by the way is a genuine question, it was just something that occured to me, and confuses me.

[Darth Wong]

Fundies would say that all of those accounts are simultaneously true, and that any apparent contradictions are due to you not interpreting it correctly. They would force you to show them word for word, line by line, verse by verse proof that there's a contradiction, and then if you actually go through all of that, they would blow it off with "Hmmm, I've never noticed that before. But I'm not the real expert; you should talk to my minister. He can probably explain it to you."

Such is the nature of unshakable faith, aka blind stupidity. There is no kind of evidence which would ever convince them of errancy in the Bible. It's like pointing out to them that Jesus says something different on the cross in each version. They just assume he said all those things, and that each listener just selectively blanked out enough events to make all of the different accounts jive.

[Darth Servo]

And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.

Funny how the Old Testament contains no such prophecy.