Progressive Embellishment, Luke→Mark→Matthew
We examine 36 cases of two-stage embellishment, which indicate that Luke is the most primitive Gospel, that was rewritten by Mark and revised again in Matthew.
Luke
Luke section
The Hebrew Gospel and Luke
The Hebrew Gospel, cited by church fathers, is the fountainhead of the Gospel tradition. Luke, not Matthew or Mark, embodies this primitive Gospel tradition.
Validation of Special Luke: Semitisms
Luke did not try to expunge and blend his sources, particularly, his Semitic source as evidenced by the Semitisms of Special Luke
Proto-Luke and Lukan Priority
B.H. Streeter was pivotal toward establishing the modern “consensus”. Yet, he advocated that Proto-Luke, an early form of Luke, had priority over Mark.
Statistical Validation of Lukan Priority
The order of the Synoptic Gospels is Luke->Mark->Matthew as indicated by a detailed statistical analysis. The analysis summarized validates Lukan Priority
Refutation of the Farrer Hypothesis
The Farrer hypothesis (also known as the Farrer-Goulder-Goodacre hypothesis) is the theory that the Gospel of Mark was written first, followed by the Gospel of Matthew and then the author of the Gospel of Luke used both Mark and Matthew as source material. This theory is refuted.