Sources of the Synoptic Gospels Part 14

Luke has a doublet for this saying in Lk ix, 48, where the form is slightly more like Matthew's than at this point; but ix, 48, appears to be taken from Mark, with reminiscence of Q. The saying is also given twice in the Fourth Gospel, and with the saying just considered const.i.tutes the total of sayings occurring in all four Gospels. Luke has taken the saying once from Mark and once from Q. Considering Matthew's partiality to doublets, the fact that he has the saying only once might be taken to indicate its absence from his recension of Q. The saying may therefore be a.s.signed to QLk.

THE QUESTION OF THE BAPTIST AND JESUS' ANSWER

(Mt xi, 2-19; Lk vii, 18-35)

With the exception of the introduction in Luke, this long section may safely be a.s.signed to Q. The preceding narrative in Matthew has supplied a warrant for the statement of Jesus about his healings; Luke, not having led up to the conversation by a similar narrative, inserts the statement here that "in that hour he healed many sick," etc. After the introductions, the verbal resemblance is extremely close, considering the length of the section. Of one hundred and ninety-nine words in Matthew and two hundred and three in Luke, about one hundred and sixty-eight are identical.

THE WOE UPON THE GALILEAN CITIES

(Mt xi, 20-24; Lk x, 13-15)

This section is practically identical in both Gospels, except for Matthew's vs. 24 and the last half of vs. 23, which have no parallel in Luke. They are an elaboration upon the words that precede them, and may be ascribed to Matthew or an editor. The section may be a.s.signed to Q.

"I THANK THEE, O FATHER"

(Mt xi, 25-27; Lk x, 21-22)

The introduction, again, has been supplied by each evangelist, tho it is not impossible that the introduction given in Matthew may have been taken from Q. After the introductions, twenty-nine consecutive words are identical. Again, after Luke's insertion of a few transitional words, the saying, "All things are given to me of my Father," runs almost, tho not quite, word for word in the two Gospels. The connecting words in Luke would seem to indicate that these two sayings were not consecutive in Q.

It is not necessary to have recourse to the recensions here.

JESUS' DEFENSE AGAINST THE PHARISEES

(Mt xii, 27-28; Lk xi, 19-20)

These verses occur in the midst of a narrative which Matthew and Luke have taken from Mark. Mark has no parallel for these verses, and the resemblance in Matthew and Luke is very close; the saying is in fact identical except for Luke's use of da?t??? for Matthew's p?e?at?. The fact that in the succeeding verses Matthew follows Mark practically word for word, while Luke has a version entirely his own, may perhaps indicate that the narrative stood in both Mark and Q, Matthew having followed Mark thruout, except for the verses here considered, and Luke having followed chiefly Q, with an occasional deference to Mark. It may safely be a.s.signed to Q.

"HE THAT IS NOT WITH ME"

(Mt xii, 30; Lk xi, 23)

A statement the exact reverse of this occurs in Mk ix, 40, in a different context. The words here are identical in the two Gospels, the order also being the same. It stood in Q.

JONAH AND THE NINEVITES

(Mt xii, 38-42; Lk xi, 29-32)

Each evangelist has supplied his own introduction. Matthew's vs. 40 is probably an interpolation, or at least a late addition. Beginning with Matthew's vs. 41 and Luke's vs. 32 (the order of Luke's verses has been reversed, perhaps by error of a scribe, since no motive appears for the change), there are fifty-three words in Matthew, fifty-five in Luke, and fifty-three of them are identical. The verses are therefore universally a.s.signed to Q.

A SPEECH ABOUT BACKSLIDING

(Mt xii, 43-45; Lk xi, 24-26)

The correspondence here also is very close; out of sixty-two words in Matthew and fifty-five in Luke, fifty-four are identical. Matthew's surplus of eight words is accounted for by the addition of a clause not found in Luke, and probably a later addition in Matthew; it does not disturb the practical ident.i.ty thruout the rest of the saying. It evidently stood in Q.

"BLESSED ARE THE EYES THAT SEE"

(Mt xiii, 16-17; Lk x, 23-24)

Luke has supplied his own introduction. Matthew has, as parallel to "the eyes that see," "the ears that hear." This may be a later addition in Matthew; or Luke, not caring so much for the Aramaic parallelism as Matthew does, may have omitted it. Luke has "kings" where Matthew has "righteous men"; d??a??? is a favorite word with Matthew; on the other hand, Luke's use of "kings" may indicate an apologetic intention upon Luke's part. The saying may be a.s.signed to Q, and the variations charged jointly to Matthew and Luke.

THE PARABLE OF THE YEAST

(Mt xiii, 33; Lk xiii, 20-21)

The introductions in the two Gospels are slightly different. After these, fourteen consecutive words are alike, the only deviation being Matthew's use (as always) of t?? ???a??? where Luke has t?? ?e??. The parable stood in Q.

THE BLIND LEADING THE BLIND

(Mt xv, 14; Lk vi, 39)

This is another instance of a saying which occurs in Luke's Sermon on the Plain but outside of Matthew's Sermon on the Mount. Matthew has apparently inserted it in the midst of a discourse against the Pharisees, the rest of which he has taken from Mark. The sayings in Matthew and Luke are not identical. If the saying stood in Q, and Matthew removed it from its Lucan connection to its present position in his Gospel, this was certainly a very unusual procedure with him. The saying is given as a "parable" in Luke, and has the brevity of the parables that were given in Q, tho not their usual reference to the kingdom of G.o.d. It is hard to think of Matthew, with his fondness for these brief parables, deliberately omitting to call the saying by this name when it was so called in his source. On the whole, however, it seems best to a.s.sign the saying to Q, and to charge Matthew with its displacement.

A SAYING ABOUT FAITH

(Mt xvii, 20; Lk xvii, 6)

The parallel here is not close. But Matthew has a doublet in xxi, 21, and Mark a similar saying in xi, 22. The saying seems therefore to have been in both Mark and Q, and was taken by Matthew from both sources and by Luke from one. The connection of the saying in Luke indicates that he took it from Q; yet his saying is not the same as Matthew's, in that he subst.i.tutes a sycamore tree for Matthew's mountain, thus greatly weakening the comparison. The two sayings certainly cannot have been derived by Matthew and Luke from an identical source. It is only on the ground of their general logian character that they can be a.s.signed to QMt and QLk.

A SAYING ABOUT OFFENSES

(Mt xviii, 7; Lk xvii, 1)

The comparison here is complicated by the fact that this saying apparently stood in both Mark and Q. It is closely, but in reverse order by the two later evangelists, connected with a saying taken from Mark. It may be a.s.signed to Q.

THE STRAY SHEEP

(Mt xviii, 12-14; Lk xv, 4-7)

There seems here to be little or no literary relations.h.i.+p. The two pa.s.sages appear to be rather different versions of the same parable, which have come down thru different channels. If it be a.s.sumed that Matthew's version is from Q, there is not enough literary agreement between it and Luke's to prove the latter to be from any recension of that doc.u.ment.

Considering the larger content of Matthew's recension, and his apparently greater unwillingness to make omissions from it, it might be safe to a.s.sign this to QMt, but to leave Luke's source for his version unspecified. At the same time it is well to remember that the parables stand apparently half-way between the narratives and the sayings, as regards the willingness of the evangelists to deviate from the wording found before them. If enough may be allowed for this difference between parables and sayings, the divergence between the two Gospels in this section might not be considered too great to be accounted for by the known habits of Matthew and Luke, working on different recensions of an original Q; and so the pa.s.sage might be a.s.signed to QMt and QLk--but certainly not with any confidence.

ABOUT FORGIVENESS

(Mt xviii, 21-22; Lk xvii, 4)