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 occur between 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 [Hebrew], while Luke's might have read [Hebrew]. 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.