Endnote 5 – O Little Town of…Nazareth?

Further, for the Synoptics, the extensive literary borrowing, the thematic arrangement of discrete episodes (e.g., conflict stories, teaching examples) with only the loosest chronological links, and the free adjustment of this material for literary purposes indicate that the authors—like other ancient biographers—are weaving material relayed to them by tradition rather than simply reporting what they saw.