[f. SYNOPTIC: see -IST.]
1. Any one of the writers of the Synoptic Gospels: see SYNOPTIC 2. (Usually in pl.)
1860. Westcott, Introd. Study Gosp., v. 262. The Synoptists, it is said, describe the public ministry of Christ as extending only over one year. Ibid. (1875), iii. (ed. 5), 166. The terms Synoptist, Synoptical, as applied to the first three Evangelists appear to date from the time of Griesbach, though they were brought into general use by Neander.
1882. Farrar, Early Chr., IV. xix. I. 493. Those who hold, in despite of the plain evidence of the Synoptists, and still more of St. John, that our Lord’s ‘brethren’ were among the number of His Apostles.
2. One who compiles a synopsis. rare–0.
In recent Dicts.
Hence Synoptistic a. = SYNOPTIC 2.
1879. E. A. Abbott, in Encycl. Brit., X. 805/2. The author of the Fourth Gospel … speaks of ‘the Jews’ as an alien race…; but this is not in the manner of the synoptistic tradition.
