Probability of Intertextual Borrowing: A Methodology for Determining the Likelihood of Literary Dependence and the Direction of Borrowing between New Testament Books

OVERVIEW: The curious presence of numerous conceptual and verbal parallels between the New Testament writings is one of the most enigmatic phenomena of biblical literature. What might explain the presence of these parallels? What is their significance? The phenomenon has raised the intriguing possibility that the authors of NT books which contain parallel texts may have borrowed written material from one another. Such a possibility could lead to far-reaching implications, not only for matte...