ABSTRACT
A biblical rewriting is characterized by literary changes when it is compared to a given source text, and what is evaluated is the rewriting strategy behind the text. In the examples of Vermes, Alexander, and Sidnie Crawford, it is known as anterior to the later rewritten Scripture text. The synoptic reading of the gospels favours a focus on similarities with the result that differences have become more striking. The very effect of placing three gospels in columns has furthered the impression that these could have been based on a common source. The plausibility of a Lukan rewriting of Matthew must be tested on the book’s contents, and not only on statistics of double or triple material. Omitted material stresses that the author of Luke was an evangelist and not a copyist. Adapted material is found in the rewritten text as selected and reworded material, which in Watson’s terminology has been “subjected to minor transpositions, as appropriate”.
