The Synoptic Problem and the Formation of the Gospels...
The overall picture is of a central line of scriptural dependence running from the foundation of OT narrative (Genesis-Kings) into the heart of the NT:
This is the literary backbone. The full pattern of dependence is far more complex, with influences from other writings and from the intense social and historical events of the first century. Matthew’s Logia, for instance, does not rely on Deuteronomy alone; it colors the sayings with wisdom from Ben Sirach. Others do something similar; they use Genesis-Kings, but they combine it with something else, and they improve the wording through echoes or quotes from the prophets or Psalms—poetic language which, through its universal nature, tends to open out the sometimes-restricted language of prose.
But the literary backbone has advantages: it is simple; it is subject to verification; and it provides an anchor for other NT discussions, including discussions of history.
The key background scriptural texts—Deuteronomy and the Elijah-Elisha narrative—are themselves complementary. Deuteronomy consists of the climactic discourses of the greatest prophet. The Elijah-Elisha narrative tells of prophets who sometimes echoed Moses. Within the Bible’s foundational narrative (Genesis-Kings), Deuteronomy and Elijah-Elisha constitute respectively the centre and the final prophetic interlude. Deuteronomy, at the centre, is like the peak of a pyramid (David N. Freedman, 1991), and the use of Deuteronomy opens the way to the incorporation of material from the whole corpus of Genesis-2 Kings.