The Jesus Puzzle Point 10 “Q” Oct 12

We now turn to point 10 and the source Q, a source that many NT scholars see as behind the teaching that overlaps between Matthew and Luke, where some 200 and 225 verses in these two gospels run in a similar manner and with the view that these two writers did not use each other.

We now turn to point 10 and the source Q, a source that many NT scholars see as behind the teaching that overlaps between Matthew and Luke, where some 200 and 225 verses in these two gospels run in a similar manner and with the view that these two writers did not use each other. This is a source whose existence I think is likely, although whether it was one document, many shared pieces, or simply an oral tradition stream is not clear.

Here is the Jesus Puzzle’s Point 10: 

10) "Q", a lost sayings collection extracted from Matthew and Luke, made no reference to a death and resurrection and can be shown to have had no Jesus at its roots: roots which were ultimately non-Jewish. The Q community preached the kingdom of God, and its traditions were eventually assigned to an invented founder who was linked to the heavenly Jesus of Paul in the Gospel of Mark. 

 Evaluation: The claim that this material lacks any reference to the cross is overstated. There are discipleship sayings about the cross or coming suffering that these two gospels alone share (Luke 13:31-35 — Matt 23:37-39). 

The remark assumes a unified origin for Q as a single document, which is not at all a given (in fact, some even question its overall existence, though I do not). Many who hold to such a source do not see it as a single document. In addition, the remark assumes that the function of such a source is to tell us everything about Jesus. Given the fact that five themes dominate this source, it is more likely that it is an intentionally narrow collection of certain sayings of Jesus (which by the way supposes that there was a Jesus to teach such things!).

The idea that a community taught such things and invented Jesus is simply fantasy. Sociologists tell us that usually charismatic figures plant a community that has new ideas. The Jesus Puzzle argues for a sequence (community to person of origin) that is the reverse of the common pattern. Even the great Greco-Roman philosophical schools can trace their roots to a founder or set of them.