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.
Much less can any reason be assigned for Matthew's omission of the sixteen
unduplicated sayings ascribed to QLk.[129] Matthew almost invariably
shortens Mark's narratives, and sometimes omits a narrative section, but
practically never omits a saying of Jesus given in Mark. The case of the
third would-be follower of Jesus, with the particularly fine saying, "No
man having put his hand to the plow"; the little parables of the Man
Building a Tower and the King Going to War; the sayings, "I came to cast
fire upon the earth," "I have a baptism to be baptized with," "Fear not,
little flock," would attract Matthew as much as they did Luke, and with
Matthew's almost slavish adherence to Mark in all Mark's sayings-material,
no reason can be given for his omission of them.
If it be asked why these unduplicated sections, which have been assigned
to QMt and QLk, are not assigned simply to special and undetermined
sources, the answer is that all these sections stand more or less closely
connected with Q material, they are strongly similar to the other Q matter
in form and idea, and equally different in form and feeling from the
passages assigned to special sources. They consist, in both Matthew and
Luke, of short parables of the undoubted Q type (cf. the Treasure Hid in
the Field, the Pearls, the Fish-Net, the Unjust Judge) and of short
sayings; whereas the special source or sources (whether of Matthew or
Luke) consist of narratives (the opening chapters of both Gospels, the
Peter-sections in Matthew, the death of Judas in Matthew, Jesus before
Herod in Luke, the watch at the grave in Matthew, the Emmaus incident in
Luke, and the peculiar matter of both Matthew and Luke in their accounts
of the days in Jerusalem) and of story-parables like the Prodigal Son, the
Lost Coin, the Good Samaritan, the Entrusted Money. These similarities in
the material assigned to a special source or sources are not enough to
prove the unity of that source for either Matthew or Luke, and are not so
intended; but they are enough to distinguish the material so assigned from
that assigned to QMt and QLk, and to establish the comparative homogeneity
of this latter material in each case.
THE "SECONDARY TRAITS" ARE IN QMt AND QLk, NOT IN Q
The distinction between Q and QMt and QLk is further justified by the
consideration of secondary traits. QMt and QLk represent deviations from,
or additions to, an original Q. Since these deviations and additions would
go back to a very early time, and even when comparatively late might
embody an early tradition, the presence of primary traits in QMt and QLk
need not surprise us.[130] Since Q cannot be proved to be earlier than
60-65, it may also easily contain secondary traits. But since QMt and QLk
are in general later than Q, and presumably represent a later tradition,
we should naturally expect to find in them a larger number of secondary
characteristics.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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