Markan Priority

Markan priority is the hypothesis that the Gospel of Mark was the first written of the three Synoptic Gospels, and that the two other synoptic evangelists, Matthew and Luke, used Mark's Gospel as one of their sources. The theory of Markan priority is today accepted by the majority of New Testament scholars who also hold that Matthew and Luke used a lost source of Jesus's sayings called Q. Their conclusion is largely based upon an analysis of the language and content relationship between the various books. The understanding that Mark was the first of the canonical gospels and that it served as a source for Matthew and Luke is foundational to some, though by no means all, modern critical scholars. G. M. Styler writes: "The priority of Mark, advocated since the eighteenth century, came to be hailed as the one assured result of criticism. That claim was excessive, but though challenged it has retained majority support."

A minority of scholars accept Markan priority but reject Q; the Farrer hypothesis, whose chief proponents are Michael Goulder and Mark Goodacre, is the best-known theory that does this. Some Jewish/Christian scholars such as Robert Lindsey, David Flusser, Shmuel Safrai, and David Bivin have proposed that there was a Hebrew version of the Gospel before it was transcribed into Greek and that this necessitates Lukan Priority.

The Augustinian hypothesis is for Matthean priority.

A former student of Bultmann, Eta Linnemann, followed by F. David Farnell, is the best known proponent of a simultaneous priority of Matthew and Mark under the Mosaic requirement that "on the evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed" (Deuteronomy 19:5).