Synoptic studies, in spite of two centuries of intensive research, have reached something of an impasse. Our own SNTS Synoptic Problem Seminar after eight years of discussion seems no nearer agreement. This is a strange phenomenon, because the synoptic problem is an inescapably real one. It is not like a discussion of the contents or order of Q, where no one knows for certain whether a Q document ever existed. The three gospels exist, there is some relation between them; if this relation could be correctly stated all the data would be satisfactorily explained without remainder. Have we missed a vital key? A hypothesis is here offered which, if tenable, would put the whole problem in a new light. Few passages are more difficult to explain than the travel narrative of Luke ix. 51–xviii. 14. The crux of the problem lies in the ‘Q material’, concerning which there are two main views: (1) that it comes from a lost source or sources also used by Matthew; (2) that Luke extracted the material direct from Matthew's gospel.