THE EXISTENCE AND CONTENT OF Q
Coming back to the theory that Matthew and Luke used a common document for their sayings-material, we have next to determine what the content of that document was.
A reasonable degree of unanimity prevails among scholars as to this content, or at least as to a considerable part of it. Where students differ is as to the sayings which are not very closely parallel in the two Gospels, or as to sayings that are contained in only one of the two. As to the sayings which are practically identical in the two, or which show such very marked literary agreements as to put different sources out of the question, there is no dispute.
There appears to be a disposition on the part of some scholars to extend Q indefinitely. In his essay in theOxford Studies, Mr. Bartlet seems to use the symbol to cover the general apostolic tradition (it is not always apparent whether he means written or not). Among German scholars, B. Weiss shows the same disposition. Among American scholars, Mr. B. W. Bacon suggests that Q might originally have contained much more and other material than can now be identified for it; as the narrative parts of it, being taken up by Mark, and copied from him by Matthew and Luke, would fail to leave in these latter Gospels any traces of themselves. This is quite true. But if Q, in addition to nearly all the logian material in Matthew and Luke originally contained allthe narrative matter of Mark, Q was not only a complete Gospel, but quite as complete a Gospel as that of Matthew or Luke; perhaps more so, since Matthew and Luke may each have omitted something from Q; and no motive remains for the writing of these later Gospels. Mr. Burkitt[86]has maintained that Q very probably contained some references to the passion; but this position has not commended itself to many, if to any, other students.
Q was a collection of sayings. That the content of it, within limits, can be made out with some degree of unanimity is indicated by the following tables. The first represents the content of Q in Matthew, as given by the five scholars whose names head the five columns, with additional statements in the following columns, concerning the amount of agreement or divergence. The second table does the same thing for the Q matter assigned to the Gospel of Luke by the same five investigators.
DEDUCTIONS FROM THE TABLE
In Table II the verses are indicated as they stand in Matthew without their parallels in Luke (which would add nothing for our purpose here), and without indicating the rearrangement of order which most if not all of these scholars attempt at various places. The purpose here is simply to present the content of Q as made out by these different men. Besides showing what each one of them assigns to Q, I have (in the column headed “All Five”) tried to show the verses which all these scholars agree in so assigning; and in the next column the verses assigned to Q by three or more out of the five. In the last two columns I have indicated the total number of verses outof each chapter, assigned to Q by all five, and by three or more, respectively. No attempt was made to select men whose work would have special tendency toward agreement; undoubtedly two investigators[87]might be substituted for Wellhausen and Wernle, whose work would make the total agreement much greater than it is in the present table.
TABLE IIMaterial from Q in Matthew
The analysis of Wellhausen is the least elaborate of the five, and that of Wernle is almost as simple. The other three show more disposition to select out the verse or part of the verse which, occuring in the midst of Q material, should nevertheless be assigned to some other source. Weiss adds a question mark to several of his sections, but these have been included in the table. All the students say that not the same certainty attaches to all the sections which they have included. Sir John Hawkins, especially, says he does not consider his work a “reconstruction of Q,” which, with Mr. Burkitt, he considers a task beyond the data at our command.
According to these five scholars, Q has furnished a source for Matthew in eleven chapters. According to three out of the five, Q is found in sixteen chapters. Harnack and Hawkins agree in finding one verse each in chaps. xv, xvii, and xix. Weiss alone finds two-thirds of a verse in xxi. Among the five, they find Q in twenty chapters. The only chapters in which Q is not found by any of them are i, ii, xiv, xvi, xx, xxvi, xxvii, and xxviii.
The most conspicuous absences of Q from Matthew are in his first two chapters, in his chapters dealing with the Passion (chaps. xxvi-xxvii), and in his story of the empty grave and the resurrection appearances (chap. xxviii).
Concerning the absence of Q from chaps. xiv, xvi, and xx, and its practically negligible presence in chaps. xv, xvii, xix, and xxi, it will be observed that these chapters do not deal exclusively with narrative material. Their content is, in brief, the death of the Baptist, the return of the disciples, the feeding of the five thousand, the walking on the sea, the dispute about hand-washing, the Canaanitish woman, the feeding of the four thousand, the demand of the Pharisees for a sign, the confession of Peter, the demands for discipleship, the transfiguration, the healing of the epileptic boy, the prediction of Jesus’ sufferings, the temple-tax, the strife about rank, the strange exorcist, the speech about offenses and about the rescue of the lost, the rules for reconciliation with a brother and for forgiveness, the parable of the Evil Steward, the dispute about marriage and divorce, the blessing of the children, the danger of riches, the parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard, the second prediction of sufferings, the demand of the sons of Zebedee, the healing of Bartimaeus, the entry into Jerusalem, the offense of the scribes and priests, the cursing of the fig tree, the purification of the temple, the parables of the Dissimilar Sons and the Evil Vineyard-Keepers.
So far as the narrative material in these chapters is concerned, it is derived from Mark. Of the discourse material, some is connected with the narrative in Mark, and taken, like the narrative, from him.[88]Other passages of discourse material, like the demands of discipleship (Mt xvi, 24-28), not closely connected with Marcan narrative, yet apparently taken from Mark, contain verseselsewhere duplicated in Matthew. For these verses, some of which Luke takes from Mark, he has duplicates elsewhere. Since these duplicates in both Matthew and Luke are elsewhere closely connected with Q material, and are in their other connections apparently uninfluenced by Mark, it appears that in these chapters, where Matthew forsakes Q, he has nevertheless embodied certain material from Mark which originally stood alike in Mark and Q.
Other instances of this kind occur in Mt xviii, 1-5, the strife about rank; in xviii, 6-9, about offenses; and in xx, 24-28, about true greatness. These verses represent passages in which, according to Sanday’s statement,[89]Mark and Q “overlapped”; or, according to other students (notably Mr. Streeter in the same volume), Mark also copied from Q. As we are here interested, not in the relation of Mark to Q, but only in the content of the latter as it is found in Matthew, we may go back to our statement that Matthew has combined his material from Q in his chaps. iii-viii and x-xii, and practically (if not quite) forsaken him in chaps. xiii-xxii.
Going back once more to Table II, the largest content ascribed to Q is given by Wernle: three hundred and two verses (including a few parts of verses). The next largest are from Weiss and Wellhausen, two hundred and forty-eight and two hundred and fifty-six verses respectively. Harnack and Hawkins assign only one hundred and ninety and one hundred and ninety-four.[90]But the facts that out of the largest content ascribed by any one of the five students (three hundred and two by Wernle), two hundred and eight of the same verses are likewise assignedby two others, and that out of the smallest content (one hundred and ninety by Harnack), one hundred and one are likewise assigned by all five, show that as to the nucleus of Q, including more than half of it according to Harnack and one-third of it according to Wernle, there is practically no dispute.
Table III will show the results of the work of the same five scholars as to the Q material in Luke.
DEDUCTIONS FROM TABLE III
Table III, containing the content ascribed to Q as it is found in Luke, by the same five scholars mentioned above, discloses some interesting results when compared with Table II (pp. 110-11). As was the case with Q in Matthew, the smallest total is assigned by Harnack. That he finds one hundred and ninety verses (including a few parts of verses) in both Matthew and Luke indicates that he has limited his Q pretty closely to the duplicate matter in both Gospels. Hawkins’ results are very close in this respect to Harnack’s (one hundred and ninety-four Q verses in Matthew and one hundred and ninety-two in Luke), and indicate the same basis of computation. Wellhausen finds Q in two hundred and fifty-six verses of Matthew, and in only two hundred and ten of Luke.
Both tables show that Wellhausen’s analysis of Q is much less elaborate than that of any of the other students. Since the number of Q verses which he finds in both Matthew and Luke is considerably larger than that which Harnack and Hawkins find, the disparity between his Q matter in Matthew and in Luke may be accounted for by his willingness to go farther beyond the duplicate material in those two Gospels for his Q. His two hundred and ten Q verses ascribed to Luke are not greatly inexcess of the number ascribed by Harnack and Hawkins to both Luke and Matthew. He gives to Luke twenty more Q verses, and to Matthew sixty-six more, than Harnack. Of these sixty-six, he may consider thirty to be duplicates in Matthew and Luke (since what constitutes derivation from a common source must always be matter of opinion). The other thirty-six verses he assigns to Q in Matthew, tho lacking duplicates in Luke, on the ground of their general characteristics. The habits of Matthew and Luke, respectively, in their treatment of Mark, render it practically certain that Matthew would feel less at liberty to omit Q material than Luke. Wernle’s assignments (three hundred and two Q verses to Matthew and two hundred and fifty-five to Luke) may be explained in the same way.
TABLE IIIMaterial in Luke Taken from Q
Somewhat more difficult to understand is Weiss’s assignment of two hundred and forty-eight Q verses to Matthew against only one hundred and seventy-four to Luke. He has here in common sixteen fewer verses than Harnack and Hawkins assign in common to Matthew and Luke from Q. But he also assigns to Matthew seventy-four Q verses not paralleled in the Q material which he assigns to Luke. The difference goes back again to the difference of opinion as to the degree of literary similarity which must be taken to indicate a common source; as also to Weiss’s interest in the special source (S) of Luke. If we deduct from Weiss’s Q in Matthew the twenty-eight verses after which he places an interrogation mark, this will leave him with only forty-six Q verses in Matthew unduplicated in Luke. This is only ten more than Wellhausen has.
All five scholars find Q material in nine of Luke’s chapters (against eleven of Matthew’s). Three find it infourteen chapters. Chaps. iii and iv in Matthew correspond with the same chapters in Luke. Harnack finds in Matthew’s two chapters seventeen Q verses, and in Luke’s two chapters, eighteen. Hawkins finds fourteen in Matthew’s two, and fifteen in Luke’s. Matthew’s chaps. v-viii (Sermon on the Mount) contain according to Harnack sixty-six Q verses, according to Hawkins sixty-eight. To these three chapters of Matthew, chap. vi of Luke forms a partial parallel. It contains, according to Harnack, twenty-six, and according to Hawkins twenty-eight Q verses, parallel to that number of Matthew’s sixty-six. Of the remaining forty Q verses in Matthew (chaps. v-viii), Luke has in other connections, in chaps. xi, xii, xiii, xiv, and xvi, thirty-four parallel Q verses. All but six of the verses assigned by Hawkins and Harnack to Q in the Sermon on the Mount are therefore paralleled by Q material in Luke. But of this Q material in Luke more than half is scattered about in different chapters, in marked contrast to its concentration in Matthew. This is perhaps the best single illustration of the fact, often mentioned, that Luke blends his Q material with material from other sources, while Matthew inserts it in blocks.
It does not appear upon the surface why the same five investigators should not reach results concerning Q in Luke with the same consensus as concerning Q in Matthew. It is perhaps explained by the fact that Luke’s blending of his material from different sources and his freer treatment of it render Q less identifiable with him. If, however, Wernle, Wellhausen, and Weiss be disregarded, and attention be paid only to the lists of Hawkins and Harnack, these latter lists will be found to agree as closely in their identification of Q material inLuke as in Matthew. This merely shows that we are on firm ground in the identification of Q, so long as we restrict ourselves closely to the duplicate passages in Matthew and Luke, and require a reasonably strict agreement before admitting a common source. It is when we leave this duplicate material, to extend the limits of Q beyond it, that the uncertainties begin.
THE NECESSITY FOR A FURTHER EXTENSION OF Q
Yet the presence in both Matthew and Luke, especially in the former, of much sayings-material which is not only imbedded in Q matter, but has all the characteristics of Q; the presence of “translation variants”; the natural assumption that even if Matthew and Luke had before them the same identical copy of Q, they would not agree entirely in the amount of material they would respectively quote from it; and the desire to assign as much as seems reasonable to this source before positing another, all lead us to the task of a further determination of the content of Q. This further determination issues in an analysis of Q into QMt and QLk.
PART IIANALYSIS OF Q INTOQMtANDQLk
THE ANALYSIS OF Q
Q ORIGINALLY AN ARAMAIC DOCUMENT, USED IN GREEK TRANSLATIONS BY MATTHEW AND LUKE
The starting-point of a further determination of the content of Q is the fact that Matthew and Luke seem to have taken their duplicate matter from a Greek document, but that this Greek document was a translation from the Aramaic. If Matthew and Luke had been independently translating from an Aramaic document, they could not have hit so generally upon the same order of words, especially where many other arrangements would have done as well (and occasionally better), nor would they have agreed in the translation of an Aramaic word by the same unusual Greek word, as notably in the ἐπιούσιον of the Lord’s Prayer. The Q they used was a Greek document.
But Jesus spoke Aramaic, not Greek; and if Q is Palestinian, and as early as 60-65 or 70, it would be strange for it to have been written in any language except that which Jesus spoke. Mark had an Aramaic tradition; and tho he probably wrote in Greek he preserved many Aramaic words and expressions; Q as found in Matthew and Luke has no Aramaic words; this seems to be explicable only upon the supposition that though the original of it was in Aramaic, Matthew and Luke knew it only in its Greek form.
The hypothesis of an Aramaic original for Q is rendered practically certain by some of the variations that occurbetween Matthew’s and Luke’s versions of it. The clearest illustration of this is found in the speech against the Pharisees. Matthew reads, καθάρισον πρῶτον τὸ ἐντὸς τοῦ ποτηρίου. Luke reads, πλῆν τὰ ἐνόντα δότε ἐλεημοσύνην. One of these Greek clauses would be as difficult to derive from the other, or both of them from the same Greek original, as would be the English translation of the words. The meaning of Luke’s is far from clear. In an Aramaic original, however, Matthew’s verb might have read רכו, while Luke’s might have read זכו. A mere stroke of the pen, if the saying originally stood in Aramaic, explains a variation which cannot be explained at all if the saying was originally in Greek. This statement, however, will apply only if the Aramaic was written and not merely spoken; for the two letters so alike in appearance are not particularly similar in sound.
Tho the above is the simplest and clearest instance, others of the same sort are not wanting. In Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount Jesus says, “So persecuted they the prophets which were before you”; while in the corresponding passage in Luke’s Sermon on the Plain he says, “In the same manner their fathers treated the prophets.” Matthew’s phrase (v. 12), τοὺς πρὸ ὑμῶν, and Luke’s (vi, 23), οἱ πατέρες αὐτῶν, are equivalents, respectively, of the Hebrew or Aramaic phrases for “your ancestors” and “their ancestors.” But whereas the two Greek phrases look nothing alike and could not be mistaken for one another, the difference in the Aramaic again reduces itself to the difference in one letter between the endings כן and הן. For Matthew’s saying (x, 12), ἀσπάσασθε αὐτήν (τὴν οἰκίαν) Luke reads (x, 5), λέγετε· εἰρήνη τῷ οἴκῳ τούτῳ. Here Luke preserves the wording of the Aramaic greeting, “Peace be unto you,” while Matthewsays, “Greet the house.” The form which Luke gives of the greeting is that which is used in Yiddish at the present time—שֶלְבְילֶךָ, “Peace to you,” equivalent to our “good morning.” That this is what underlay the tradition in Matthew is indicated by the fact that he goes on to say, “If the house is worthy,your peaceshall abide upon it; but if it is unworthy,your peaceshall return to you.”
The very peculiar Greek used by both Matthew and Luke in the saying about excommunication (εἴποσιν πᾶν πονηρὸν καθ’ ὑμῶν in Mt v, 11, and ἐκβάλωσιν τὸ ὄνομα ὑμῶν ὡς πονηρὸν in Lk vi, 22) seems to go back to the one Aramaic phrase for giving one a bad name. In the speech against the Pharisees Matthew (xxiii, 25) says, “Ye cleanse the outside of the cup and dish but inwardly they [the cup and platter] are full of greed and baseness.” Luke makes much better sense by reading (xi, 39), “Ye cleanse the outside of cup and platter, but inwardly ye are full of greed,” etc. If it be assumed that the present tense of the verb “to cleanse” was represented in Aramaic by the participle (which would be the usual construction), and that the second person pronoun stood with it in the first clause but was not repeated in the second (as would also be natural in the Aramaic), Matthew’s change of the verb in the second clause, from the second person to the third, and his consequent use of “cup and dish” as the subject of it, are easily explained; since the participle carries in itself no distinction between second and third person, and the plural form would fit equally the “ye” and the “they.” Instances such as these (I owe them all to Wellhausen)[91]seem to prove conclusively (Jülicher says “beyond a doubt”) that, notmerely an Aramaic oral tradition, but an Aramaic document lies behind the Greek Q used by Matthew and Luke.
METHODS OF MATTHEW AND LUKE IN THEIR USE OF Q
Upon the hypothesis that Matthew and Luke used essentially the same text of Q, an elaborate treatment of their respective use of that document is called for to show which of them, in instances where they differ, is to be charged with the alterations, and to assign the reasons for those alterations. Two scholars, Harnack in hisSayings of Jesusand Wernle in hisSynoptische Frage, have made such an analysis, with the thoroness characteristic of them. The writer has studied these analyses carefully, and upon the basis of them and of such study of the texts as they suggested, made his own analysis. But upon the hypothesis of Q as originally an Aramaic document, used by Matthew and Luke in Greek translations going back to different Aramaic texts, such an analysis becomes superfluous, because superseded by the analysis of Q into the two recensions, QMt and QLk.
THE ANALYSIS OF Q INTOQMtANDQLk
If Q was originally an Aramaic document, used by Matthew and Luke in Greek translations going back to different copies of the Aramaic original, it is fair to assume that these two translations would have had different histories. Q would always be growing, by the aid of oral tradition; and if Q was written before Mark, there was ample time, say twenty-five years at least, before it was used by Matthew and Luke, for the two recensions, circulating in different communities and perhaps originally shaped to suit the needs of different readers, to acquiremany dissimilar features. Not only would the same saying in many instances become changed to meet the varying need, or to adapt itself to what was considered a better tradition, but many things would be included in either recension which were not included in the other. Matthew will thus have had a recension of Q which we may designate by the sign QMt, and Luke one which we may call QLk.
The following pages represent an attempt to determine the content of Q, as that is represented in both Matthew and Luke.[92]Of the sections of Matthew and Luke examined, some are marked QMt, some QLk, and some merely Q. By this it is not meant that Matthew and Luke each had a document Q, and besides this a document QMt or QLk, and that they took now from one and now from the other. But where the wording of Matthew and Luke is identical, or so closely similar that the variations can be easily explained as changes made by Matthew or Luke, the material is assigned simply to Q. But where the variations are too great, much greater for example than any changes that have been made by Matthew and Luke or by either one of them where they are taking their logian material from Mark, the material is assigned to QMt and QLk. Reasons for the assignment to QMt or to QLk instead of to simple Q are given in each case seeming to require them. The sum of all passages assigned to any form of Q will constitute the total content of Q, so far as it is contained in both Matthew and Luke. This total content will be somewhat larger than the content that could be assigned to Q without the hypothesis of QMt and QLk, since by this hypothesis many sectionswill be sufficiently alike to be assigned to Q (QMt and QLk) which otherwise would have to be ascribed to different sources.[93]
Q,QMt, ANDQLkIN THE DOUBLE TRADITION OF MATTHEW AND LUKE
THE PREACHING OF JOHN THE BAPTIST
(Mt iii, 7b-10; Lk iii, 7b-9)
This section is universally ascribed to Q. In Matthew’s Gospel it contains sixty-three words; in Luke’s sixty-four. These are identical in the two Gospels, except for Luke’s addition of καὶ at the beginning of his 9th verse, his plural (καρποὺς) where Matthew has the singular, and his substitution of ἄρξησθε for Matthew’s δόξητε. The parallelism begins in the middle of the 7th verse of each Gospel; the first part of the verse in each case evidently being supplied by the evangelist. Matthew says John’s remark was addressed to the Pharisees and Sadducees. With his customary indifference to class distinctions among the Jews, Luke represents the words as being addressed to all those who came for baptism. They do not seem appropriate to candidates for baptism, whether Pharisees, Sadducees, or others. Luke uses some form of the verb ἄρχω with the infinitive λέγειν eight times as against Matthew’s twice. As it seems here to have no advantage over δοκέω it might be safe to suppose that the substitution was made unintentionally, and from the influence of the recollection of similar usage in other parts of Luke’s Gospel. The first half of vs. 7 in each Gospel should be assigned to the evangelists; the remainder of the section to Q.
THE MESSIANIC PROCLAMATION OF THE BAPTIST
(Mt iii, 11-12; Lk iii, 16-17)
Matthew’s vs. 11 and Luke’s vs. 16 are closely parallel to Mark i, 7-8. But they are still more closely parallel with each other, and contain common deviations from Mark which cannot be explained upon the supposition that they are taken from the latter. The wording in the two Gospels, for twenty-six consecutive words, is identical, except for Luke’s omission of καὶ in his vs. 17, and his consequent change of verbs from the finite to the infinitive mood. This section is universally assigned to Q.
THE TEMPTATION
(Mt iv, 3-11; Lk iv, 3-13)
The whole story of the temptation as told by Matthew and Luke includes the two verses of each Gospel which immediately precede the section here specified. These verses are not included here because they seem to the writer to be taken by Matthew and Luke from Mark and not from Q. The common avoidance by Matthew and Luke of Mark’s statement that Jesus was “with the wild beasts,” and their common substitution of διάβολος for Mark’s σατανᾶς, would point toward their exclusive use of Q and their avoidance of Mark in these verses. On the other hand, Matthew and Luke use very different phraseology to express their common idea of the hunger of Jesus (Luke saying οὐκ ἔφαγεν οὐδὲν ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις, καὶ συντελεσθεισῶν αὐτῶν ἐπείνασεν, while Matthew says καὶ νηστεύσας ἡμέρας τεσσεράκοντα καὶ τεσσεράκοντα νύκτας, ὕστερον ἐπείνασεν). Matthew agrees with Mark in six consecutive words (except for the transposition of two of them) where Luke has a wordingof his own. Whereas Mark says that Jesus was tempted forty days, saying nothing about his hunger, Matthew says he fasted for forty days and was tempted at the expiration of this time, and Luke that he fasted forty days and was tempted during that time. The best explanation for these divergences and similarities is that Matthew and Luke take these verses from Mark but correct him freely under the influence of Q. Q also of course contained these verses, and they will be assigned to him when we come to consider the Q material in Mark. In the rest of the temptation narrative, where Mark has no parallel, there is great verbal similarity. The enlargement of the Old Testament quotation may perhaps be ascribed to Matthew. The transposition of Matthew’s second temptation to the third place in Luke seems to spoil the climax in the narrative; Mr. Streeter (Oxford Studies, p. 152) argues that Luke would not have spoiled so good an arrangement if he had found it in his source. If this argument were allowed, the section would have to be assigned to QMt and QLk. The writer does not feel that the divergences are great enough to necessitate this, and so assigns it to Q.
“BLESSED ARE THE POOR”
(Mt v, 3; Lk vi, 20b)
Matthew’s beatitude is in the third person, Luke’s in the second. Matthew adds “in spirit.” If the beatitude stood alone, the changes in it are not too great to be attributed to Matthew, and the “in spirit” is what might be expected. But taking it in close connection with much material that could not have stood alike in Matthew’s source and in Luke’s it is better to assign it to QMt and QLk.
“BLESSED ARE THEY THAT MOURN”
(Mt v, 5; Lk vi, 21b)
The wording is not at all similar, μακάριοι being the only word in common. Yet the two beatitudes sound like two versions of the same one. κλαίω is a Lucan word, used eleven times by Luke in his Gospel, against twice by Matthew and three times by Mark. γελάω is used twice in Luke’s Gospel, and not elsewhere in the New Testament. Both of these occurrences are in Luke’s “Sermon on the Level Place.” These facts, with the context, indicate a source in Luke’s hands partly like, and partly unlike, the source in Matthew’s. The verse is therefore assigned to QMt and QLk.
“BLESSED ARE THEY THAT HUNGER”
(Mt v, 6; Lk vi, 21a)
Matthew’s version is again in the third person and Luke’s in the second. Luke understands the hunger to be literal. Matthew “spiritualizes” by adding τὴν δικαιοσύνην. Luke adds νῦν, to point the contrast between his beatitude and the corresponding woe, which Matthew does not have. In spite of these differences, out of ten words in Matthew’s form and six in Luke’s, five words are identical (except for a deviation in personal ending). Except for the context the verse might be assigned simply to Q; but it is better ascribed to QMt and QLk.
“BLESSED ARE THE PERSECUTED”
(Mt v, 11-12; Lk vi, 22-23)
The verbal similarity is close only in a few places; notably in the ὁ μισθὸς ὑμῶν πολὺς ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς (τῷ οὐρανῷ). Out of thirty-five words in Matthew andfifty-one in Luke, only twelve are identical. Two considerations prevent the assignment of these verses to two totally different sources. The first is their contiguity to so much Q material. The second is the presence in them of two translation variants.[94]The second of these two verses, at least, therefore goes back to two different recensions or translations of one original Aramaic document—QMt and QLk.
A SAYING ABOUT SALT
(Mt v, 13; Lk xiv, 34)
This saying evidently stood in both Mark and Q. Luke follows Mark in καλὸν οὖν τὸ ἅλα and Q in the rest of his saying. Matthew’s form of the saying, which makes it addressed to the disciples, “Ye are the salt of the earth,” involves a much greater change than Matthew ever permits himself when he transcribes the words of Jesus which he finds in Mark. Luke, on the other hand, could scarcely have found the saying in his source with this application to the disciples, and have changed it to its much less pointed and personal form in his own Gospel. The only conclusion possible from a comparison of Matthew and Luke here is that this saying lay in different forms in their sources. But since it occurs in the midst of so much Q material, it is better to assign it to different recensions of Q than to some other unknown source.
A SAYING ABOUT LIGHT
(Mt v, 15; Lk xi, 33)
This is another saying that stood in both Mark and Q. Mark has the saying in Mk iv, 21. His form of it is theapparently less natural one, “Does the lamp come in order that it may be put under a bushel?” etc. Weiss suggests[95]that it has been given this form to make it refer to the coming of Jesus as the light of the world. Neither Matthew nor Luke has copied this feature of Mark’s saying. By his context Matthew makes the saying refer, like the saying about salt, directly to the disciples. Luke has the saying twice: in xi, 33 and viii, 16. In both cases his context would indicate that he took the saying to refer to the teaching of Jesus. Matthew says the light is to give light “to all that are in the house.” Luke does not mention the house, but implies it in his statement that “those who are entering in see the light,” this form being found in both his reports of the saying. Mark says “under the bushel or under the bed”; Matthew, “under the bushel”; Luke once, “in a dish or under the bed,” and a second time, “in a cellar or under the bushel.” Luke’s fondness for the same ending in his two uses of the saying can be explained only by the supposition that it so stood in one of his sources. The same idea in the conclusion of the saying as it appears in Matthew and Luke, and their common avoidance of the opening formula which is peculiar to Mark, would indicate that Matthew and Luke practically forsake Mark in this saying, and follow their other source. Luke, having a doublet for the saying, may be assumed to have taken it once from Mark and once from his other source; but he is evidently much more influenced by his other source than he is by Mark. The non-Marcan source in which the saying was found by Matthew and Luke was evidently an allied, but not an identical, one; the saying is therefore assigned to QMt and QLk.
A SAYING ABOUT THE LAW
(Mt v, 18; Lk xvi, 17)
There are twenty-seven words in Matthew’s form of this saying; fifteen in Luke’s. Only nine words show any correspondence. Matthew’s “until all be fulfilled” is held by Schmiedel[96]to be a gloss, added, not by the final editor of Matthew, who did not care for Jewish legalism, but by an earlier editor. Harnack maintains that it goes back to Jesus, and does not necessarily mean that the law shall ultimately pass away. In his essay in theOxford StudiesHawkins maintains that the section can be made “very probable” for Q. Considering the wide divergences, the writer would add that this probability can be established only upon the hypothesis of two recensions of Q; upon that hypothesis it would be granted by everyone.
“AGREE WITH THINE ADVERSARY”
(Mt v, 25-26; Lk xii, 58-59)
Luke prefaces this saying with one peculiar to his Gospel: “Why do ye not, of yourselves, judge what is right?” The close connection of this saying with the passage here under consideration, and the verbal resemblances and divergences of the sections in Matthew and Luke—twenty-five identical words out of a total of forty-three in Matthew and forty-nine in Luke—warrant their assignment to QMt and QLk.
ABOUT NON-RESISTANCE AND LOVE OF ENEMIES
(Mt v, 39, 40, 42, 44-48; Lk vi, 27-30, 32, 36)
It is possible to choose out of these verses here and there a few words which, if they stood alone, would be naturally assigned simply to Q. By regarding only thewords which very closely correspond, this is accomplished, but with the result that the other words, standing in the same context and in closest connection, must be assigned to totally different sources, or ascribed to the invention or alteration of one of the evangelists. The verbal similarity thruout the section is sometimes close, sometimes remote. Transpositions are frequent. Where Matthew has the simile of the rain and sun, Luke has the comparatively weak words “good to the unthankful and evil.” This is a substitution that Luke certainly would never have made for the strong words of Matthew if these had stood in his source. The author assigns the section to the two recensions, QMt and QLk.
THE LORD’S PRAYER
(Mt vi, 9-13; Lk xi, 2-4)
This is one of the sections that point most clearly to different recensions of Q in the hands of Matthew and Luke. It is improbable that any collection of the sayings of Jesus should have lacked this prayer. It is equally improbable that Luke could have had it before him in the more elaborated form of Matthew, and have abridged it to suit himself. Matthew’s more elaborate form, on the other hand, does not sound like the deliberate alteration of any one author, but like the accumulated liturgical usage of the Christian community. Luke’s introduction to the prayer is certainly not his own invention, and is so appropriate that it is hard to believe that Matthew found it in connection with the prayer in his source and deliberately omitted it. Luke’s form seems decidedly more primary. The use in both Gospels of the strange word ἐπιούσιον seems to carry the two traditionsback to one original; but the variations are certainly greater than can be accounted for by the literary habits of Matthew and Luke, working upon the same original. In other words, that original had passed thru a different history before it reached our two evangelists. The section is assigned to QMt and QLk.
A SAYING ABOUT TREASURES
(Mt vi, 19-21; Lk xii, 33-34)
The verbal similarity is not close. Except for the proximity of other Q material, the section might be assigned to two entirely different sources. There is, especially, a quite different turn given to the saying in Luke, from that which it has in Matthew, by the introduction of the words “Sell your goods and give alms.” In spite of Luke’s interest in alms-giving, as disclosed in the Book of Acts, it is hard to credit him with such a re-wording of his text without some help from his source. But the last twelve words in the section are identical in the two Gospels, except that Luke uses the plural form of the pronoun where Matthew uses the singular. Largely on account of these last twelve words the section is assigned to QMt and QLk.
A SAYING ABOUT THE EYE
(Mt vi, 22-23; Lk xi, 34-35)
Of forty-four words in Matthew and forty in Luke, thirty-two are identical. The divergences in the use of conjunctions (ὅταν for ἐὰν, e.g.) and the improvement by condensation of the last sentence are such changes as might be easily ascribed to Luke. The section may, with reasonable assurance, be assigned merely to Q.
ABOUT DOUBLE SERVICE
(Mt vi, 24; Lk xvi, 13)
There are twenty-seven words in this saying according to Matthew, twenty-eight according to Luke. Luke appears to have been the innovator; his addition of οἰκέτης improves the sentence in a way often accomplished by him. With the exception of the presence of this word in Luke and its absence in Matthew the saying is identical in the two Gospels. It is therefore assigned simply to Q.
ABOUT CARE
(Mt vi, 25-33; Lk xii, 22-31)
Considering the length of this passage, the verbal similarity is remarkably close. Out of one hundred and sixty words in Luke and one hundred and sixty-six in Matthew, about one hundred and fifteen are identical. Beginning in the middle of Luke’s vs. 22, and at the first of Matthew’s vs. 25, there are twenty-six words in Luke which are identical with the same number of words arranged in identical order, in Matthew; except that Luke has omitted (or Matthew has supplied) three words, without affecting the meaning of the passage. Beginning with Matthew’s vs. 32 and Luke’s vs. 30, there are again twenty-one identical words out of twenty-four in Luke and thirty-one in Matthew. Matthew may here easily be credited with the addition of the words which constitute the difference; for his ὁ οὐράνιος and his καὶ τὴν δικαιοσύνην are characteristic of him: the former expression being used by him seven times and not at all by the other evangelists; the latter, seven times by Matthew, once by Luke, and not at all by Mark. His addition of πρῶτον in his vs. 33 has a decidedly secondary sound. The passage may therefore be assigned simply to Q.
ABOUT JUDGING
(Mt vii, 1-2; Lk vi, 37-38)
Between the beginning and the end of this saying, both of which are alike in the two Gospels, Luke has an amplification of some length. It is highly improbable that this amplification is the work of Luke, who is much more inclined to condense than to enlarge. The Q context in both Gospels, and the almost exact agreement of the saying, except for the enlargement in Luke, warrant the assignment to QMt and QLk.
THE BEAM AND THE MOTE
(Mt vii, 3-5; Lk vii, 41-42)
The verbal agreement is very close. Out of sixty-four words in Matthew and sixty-nine in Luke fifty-six are identical, except for deviation in mode or number. The greater condensation seems characteristic of Matthew. The changes do not seem too great to be ascribed to the two evangelists working on the same source, Q.
ABOUT SEEKING AND FINDING
(Mt vii, 7-11; Lk xi, 9-13)
The agreement is close, except where Luke in his vs. 12 adds the item of the egg and the scorpion which has no parallel in Matthew. In spite of the addition of this verse in Luke, out of eighty words in his version and seventy-three in Matthew’s sixty-two are still identical. Luke’s substitution of “holy spirit” for Matthew’s indefinite “good things” is characterized by Schmiedel as a “deliberate divergence.” The same phrase would hardly describe the addition of vs. 12. According to the principle here followed, it might seem natural to assign this verse, and so the whole context, to Luke’s recension of Q. Butin the whole section, aside from this verse, there are so few deviations, and these so easily accounted for on the part either of Matthew or Luke, that the writer inclines to assign the section simply to Q. Luke’s vs. 12 would then be regarded as a gloss, or an addition of Luke from some source of his own, perhaps oral. Between this disposal of the matter and the assignment of the entire section to QMt and QLk there is not much to choose.
THE GOLDEN RULE