I did promise a summary :) So here it is:
We use two overarching philosophical principles:
I) skeptical/critical reasoning
II) empirical evidence
leading us towards two explanatory goals:
A) depth
B) scope
We also use our related theoretical principles of:
Ia) parsimony
Ib) no new texts
We then propose the gospel authors were motivated by two primary goals:
I) Story
II) Theology
and were influenced by two primary methodological mechanisms:
I) Paired Major Sources, and
II) Multiple Minor Sources.
They typically handled their paired major sources by:
1a) conflating two textual elements
1b) pairing two textual elements
1c) eliminating a textual element (note: sometimes a textual element was eliminated when it was compared to a similar source, but no corresponding element was found there)
They typically developed story and theology by:
2a) splitting a textual element
2b) duplicating a textual element
2c) re-using a textual element (note: sometimes a textual element was re-used while retaining the original version, but sometimes it involved relocating and re-writing the original itself).
While there's no need to completely restrict myself to these methods, I return to them repeatedly when in doubt, to guide my investigations. I've found them incredibly useful.
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