Specificity of polemic stories in the synoptic Gospels

The disputes of Jesus Christ with his contemporaries form a significant part of the synoptic gospels. The disputes are short, polemical stories in which there is a context, an object of dispute, and the positions of both sides are stated or assumed. The study of the polemical stories of the synoptic gospels makes it possible to identify the specifics of the versions of the summary histories in the Gospels of Mark, Luke and Matthew, and also gives an idea of the religious context not only of the time of Christ’s life, but also of the time of writing the polemical stories in the second half of the 1st century. The author analyzes the text of the synoptic gospels and singles out 12 summary disputes in the Gospels of Mark and Matthew and 14 disputes in the Gospel of Luke, of which only 11 disputes are common with the Gospels of Mark and Matthew. The analysis of the polemical material shows the coincidence of the sequence of disputes in the Gospel of Mark with the sequence of the consolidated disputes of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, reveals the characteristics of the polemical material of each synoptic. In addition, a comparative analysis of significant differences in the editions of two polemical stories - the demand for a sign and the question of divorce - was carried out.