Reading the Gospels Together Points of Contact among the storylines – Part 4 At this point the storylines of Mark, Matthew, and Luke differ greatly from that of John. We have already spent some time examining how Mark, Matthew, and Luke are interrelated as we traced the storylines of Matthew and Luke so we will not spend much time repeating that. There is one major connection between the synoptic gospels and John; however, and that is the twin stories of “The multiplication of the Bread and Jesus walking on the Water” which is the next point of contact we will examine. This is really the only story from the Galilean ministry that John shares with the synoptic writers. It is surprising to most readers of the gospels to realize that John tells very few of the stories of the Galilean ministry of Jesus that are found in the other gospels. Points of contact between John and the synoptic gospels during the Galilean ministry can be noticed although they are far more indirect. An interesting point of contact has to do with “The relationship between Jesus and his family.” Another point of contact we will examine is “The dispute about Sabbath practice.” Yet another disputable point of contact is Mark’s story of the double “Healing of a blind man” (Mark 8:322-26) and John’s story of the healing of a man born blind (John 9) and even the “Healing of a paralytic” (Mark 2:1-12; Matthew 9:2-8; Luke 5:17-26; and John 5:1-18). As was noted earlier, a point of contact between John and Matthew and Luke is the story of “The healing of the official’s slave/son.” And there are apparent points of contact between Luke and John in at least three areas – “The Samaritans,” “The fishing episode involving Peter,” and “Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.” Another very indirect point of contact is to consider three topics, “Jesus and the religious leaders,” “Jesus the teacher,” and “Jesus the healer.”