And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.
-John 20:30-31
Answer: The Synoptic Gospels are the first three books found in the New Testament namely Matthew, Mark and Luke. The word synoptic was derived from the Greek word synoptikos, which means "viewing at a glance." They were called synoptic for the fact that they provided the same general view of the life and teachings of Jesus. They mirror each other's gospel which mainly narrates the Messianic role of Christ and his teachings on more ethical and religious matters.
The Gospel of John was excluded among the Synoptic Gospels because it has some unique accounts that are not present on the other three. For example, John mentioned the wedding at Cana (John 2:1-11), the conversation with the Samaritan woman (John 4;5-26) and his unique introduction to Jesus Christ as the incarnate Word (John 1:1-3,14). These stories and some other accounts were not mentioned on the Synoptic Gospels, however, there were also some recorded on the Synoptic Gospels that are not recorded in John.
Gospel Writers
Early scholars and theologians believed that the Matthew was the first of these three Synoptic Gospels that was written . While the Mark was thought as the abridged form of Matthew. Luke, on the other hand, was the latest among the three and was probably based his gospel on the other two. thus, in the New Testament it was arranged in chronological order that made Matthew the first, followed by Mark, Luke and John respectively. This belief was widely accepted as genuine fact over the course of history,but not until 19th century when most scholars accepted the result of a two-document hypothesis that stated Mark was actually the first existing gospel, while Matthew and Luke based their works on it and with some other sources.
