Christian theology Christian theology is the theology of Christian belief and practice. Such study concentrates primarily upon the texts of the Old Testament and of the New Testament, as well as on Christian tradition. Christian theologians use biblical exeg ...

, a parallel passage is a passage in another portion of the Bible which describes the same event. Comparison of parallel passages within the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus ...

is a major area of

Biblical scholarship Biblical criticism is the use of critical analysis to understand and explain the Bible. During the eighteenth century, when it began as ''historical-biblical criticism,'' it was based on two distinguishing characteristics: (1) the concern to ...

. The Bible frequently describes the same event from different points of view in different canonical books yielding a more complete picture of the event than a single passage on the subject does. Some of the biblical passages describe an area of biblical study in an up close context whereas other passages provide information on the bigger picture surrounding the subject at hand. The Bible also provides partial information on some subjects in a given passage then adds additional information in other biblical passages. The technique of comparing Scripture with Scripture is important for determining correct biblical doctrine. Formulating a doctrine on a single Scripture and ignoring the other Scriptures on the subject can lead to erroneous conclusions. For example, comparisons of and with their parallel passages and lead scholars to conclude that the phrases ''Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses'' and ''Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James'' in the Mark readings refer to the same two women.

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Biblical criticism Christian terminology {{bible-stub

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