After reading Whites chapter called “Marking the Passion” and comparing and contrasting the different charts, it becomes clear that the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, contain much of the same information along with different information. Some of the gospels expand on certain stories and recount them differently. There are stories found in Luke that are not found in the other three gospels. One of the biggest examples of this is the additional trail found in Luke that is not found in any of the other gospels. The trail is Jesus before Herod Antipas. This trail before Herod is used by the author to emphasize that Pilate did not think Jesus was guilty of any crime punishable by death. Along with Luke containing an additional part of the passion narrative, the gospel of Luke is also lacking certain parts that the other three gospels contain. For example, in Matthew, Mark, and John Jesus is flogged, but in Luke that part of the story is no where to be found. Also, there is no mocking by the soldiers in Luke when it is found in all the other gospels. Luke is also the only gospel that has the Jesus and his disciples praying at the Mt. of Olives. The other gospels do not mention the Mt. of Olives. Another important part of the passion narrative that varies within the gospels is the scene with the two bandits. In Mark and Matthew, the two bandits crucified with Jesus mock him, but in Luke the first bandit mocks him, while the other, after affirming Jesus’s innocence and asking to be remembered, receives a blessing.

  After comparing the passion narrative in the gospels, I automatically thought of the Four-Source hypothesis. I kept noticing that there was additional information in Luke that was not found in the other gospels. This made me think of the “L” source that was exclusive to Luke. The Hebrew scriptures provide an additional source for the gospels writers to use to piece together the “nodes.” They provide as an additional source for them to refer to, because information on Jesus’ life was rather scattered.

The writing practices of early Christian storytellers were unique to each author. Each writer had a different account or remembrance of Jesus that they clearly showed through their writing. I think that is why he is depicted differently in each gospel. It must have been difficult for them if they were not at the scene, because then they would only be going off of oral tradition and word of mouth. I think clarity is important for the storytellers because it is such a complicated topic that they needed to be extra careful the way they worded their stories.