page_title: Marcan priority
section_title: Alternatives
hierarchical_section_title: Marcan priority / Alternatives
context_page_description: Marcan priority, the hypothesis that the Gospel of Mark was the first-written of the three Synoptic Gospels and was used as a source by the other two is a central element in discussion of the synoptic problem – the question of the documentary relationship among these three Gospels.
  Most scholars since the late nineteenth century have accepted the concept of Marcan priority. It forms the foundation for the widely accepted two-source theory, although a number of scholars support different forms of Marcan priority or reject it altogether.
context_section_description: The most prominent challenger to Marcan priority is Marcan posteriority, which holds that Mark used both Matthew and Luke as a source. This hypothesis is most associated with the Two-Gospel (Griesbach) theory, which further posits Matthaean priority (thus, in order, Matthew—Luke—Mark). This view envisions a Mark who mostly collected the common material shared between Matthew and Luke.
  Matthaean priority is also a feature of the Augustinian theory, which differs by placing Mark in the middle (thus, the order Matthew—Mark—Luke).
  Lucan priority has been revived in recent decades in the complex form of the Jerusalem school theory, which also places Mark in the middle. Here, Mark uses Luke, then Matthew uses Mark but not Luke, while all three Synoptics draw from a hypothetical Greek translation of an earlier Hebrew work.
  Some theories deny literary priority to any one of the Synoptic Gospels, asserting that, whatever their chronological order of composition, none of them draws from any of the others. The multi-source theory has each synoptic gospel combining a distinct mix of earlier documents, while the independence theory denies any documentary relationship and regards each gospel as an original composition utilizing oral sources only.
  Some variations on Marcan priority propose an additional revision of Mark—a Proto-Mark (Ur-Mark) if earlier than the canonical Gospel, or a Deutero-Mark if later—serving as a source for Matthew and/or Luke.
caption: The Two-Gospel (Griesbach) theory, a prominent alternative to Marcan priority, holds that Mark used Matthew and Luke as sources.