Sources of the Synoptic GospelsPatton, Carl S. (Carl Safford)
Religion
Sources of the Synoptic Gospels
Patton, Carl S. (Carl Safford)
Bible. Gospels -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
If the Lord's Prayer, which Luke gives in another and better connection,
be omitted from Matthew's chap. vi, we shall have here three consecutive
sections which have very striking literary resemblances; they are the
sections on alms-giving, on prayer, and on fasting. That these should have
found no echo in the Gospel of Luke, if they stood in his source, is
strange; especially considering his peculiar interest in alms-giving and
prayer. As to the literary affinities among these three sections, the use
of μισθὸς, four times, has been noted. The phrase ἀπέχουσιν τὸν μισθὸν
αὐτῶν occurs three times; the longer phrase ἐν τῷ κρυπτῷ, καὶ ὁ πατήρ σου
ὁ βλέπων ἐν τῷ κρυπτῷ ἀποδώσει σοι, three times.[105] Quite without these
recurrences of the same formulae, the form and sentiment of the three
sections are so markedly the same as to suggest that they were originally
consecutive, and that they have been taken from one written source. No
more probable source can be suggested than QMt.
PEARLS BEFORE SWINE
(Mt vii, 6)
Schmiedel has suggested that this fragment may "indicate a time when the
eucharist had been so long celebrated as materially to influence the
general tradition of the doctrines of Jesus." A passage somewhat similar
in tone is that occurring in the story of the Canaanitish woman: "it is
not proper to take the bread of the children and give it to the dogs."
Matthew takes this story from Mark; but, significantly, he has omitted one
sentence of Mark's which tones down the Jewish particularism of the
passage, "let the children first be fed." He also inserts in that story
the sentence, not in Mark, "I am not sent except to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel," which corresponds somewhat closely with this statement
concerning the command of Jesus to his disciples, also peculiar to
Matthew, "Into the way of the nations do not go, and into a city of the
Samaritans do not enter; but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel." It is only fair to admit that these instances, in which Matthew
heightens, once by insertion and once by omission, the Jewish coloring in
a story taken from Mark, tell against the theory generally advocated by
the writer, that the Judaistic features of Matthew's Gospel are referable
to his source, and the universalistic features to Matthew himself. But, on
the other hand, this vs. 6 has no discernible connection in its present
context, and no reason suggests itself for Matthew's insertion of it,
except his desire to retain what was in his source. This source may have
been a special one, perhaps even an oral one; but considering the
Judaistic character of so many sayings attributed to Matthew's Q, that
recension would also fit this saying.
THE FALSE PROPHETS
(Mt vii, 15)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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