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.
These verses have a strong Judaistic coloring: "Into a way of the Gentiles
do not go, and into a city of the Samaritans do not enter," etc. They also
betray the expectation of the early coming of the parousia. These two
items are inconsistent with the invention of these verses by Matthew. They
must have arisen long before Matthew's time. Yet they are imbedded in Q
material. No theory of their origin suits all these facts so well as that
they are a portion of the Q material which was added to that document
after its original compilation, and in the recension that was finally used
by Matthew. It is interesting to observe that Matthew here makes Jesus
teach his disciples (vs. 7) the same formula which he himself had learned
from John the Baptist.
FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS TO THE DISCIPLES
(Mt x, 16_b_-25, 41-42)
Of the chapter in which this section occurs Mr. Streeter says that Matthew
begins with Mark, adds some Q material parallel to Luke's Q material in
the same connection, then Q material unparalleled, then Q material
paralleled in other connections in Luke, then material from a totally
different part of Mark.[106] The verses enumerated here are not paralleled
in either Mark or Luke. They are not like the verses, for the most part,
which Matthew and Luke agree in taking from Q; and they show marked
difference in some respects from those which we have thus far assigned to
Matthew's recension of Q. In his _Apostolic Age_ Professor James Hardy
Ropes[107] suggests that at least one purpose of the collection of Jesus'
sayings was "to furnish a kind of handbook of missionary practice for
those times." These verses, better almost than any other section out of
the instructions to the disciples, answer this purpose. If they rest upon
words of Jesus spoken at the time he sent out his disciples, they are at
least colored by the needs of Christian missionaries who went out toward
the end of the apostolic age. They betray the conviction that the time of
the parousia is near. As coming from Jesus they contain a prediction so
obviously unfulfilled as to make their later invention and ascription to
him very difficult. On the other hand no words ascribed to him would by
themselves more easily originate in the times of the early Christian
missions. Considering their position here, and giving due weight to
Professor Ropes's suggestion, it seems much more probable that they are
taken by Matthew from some written source than from an oral tradition. If
so, no better source can be posited than Matthew's recension of Q.
A SAYING ABOUT ELIJAH
(Mt xi, 14)
Like the reference to Elijah in Mk ix, 12, this verse sounds like a
parenthesis. It adds nothing to the context, and rather interrupts than
furthers the matter. If not inserted by Matthew from some unknown,
perhaps oral, source, it may perhaps best be considered as a gloss.
"HE THAT HATH EARS, LET HIM HEAR"
(Mt xi, 15)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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