Recent research on the Gospel of Luke has concentrated largely on the assumption that Mark's Gospel was Luke's exclusive source for the Markan tradition, and has therefore concluded that all deviations from Mark's Gospel within the Markan material used by Luke can be considered as Luke's own contribution.

In this detailed analysis Dr Schramm points out that, in addition to his use of the Gospel of Mark in its extant form, Luke also drew on other oral or written traditions and concludes that where Luke shortened, augmented or modified his main source this was frequently due to the influence of variant traditions and should not in all cases be regarded as evidence of Luke's own theology.

These conclusions show the necessity for a reconsideration of certain aspects of the so-called Lukan question and that 'Redaktionsgeschichte' must be more strongly linked with literary criticism.