Sources of the Synoptic Gospels Part 18

(Mt ix, 32-34)

Vs. 34 is a doublet of Mt xii, 24; the latter is from Mk iii, 22, where Mark also appears to be following Q. Perhaps ix, 27-34, has been inserted at just this place, in order to warrant the statement of Jesus to John the Baptist that "the blind see and the deaf hear." It is hardly necessary to a.s.sign it to a special literary source.

INSTRUCTIONS TO THE DISCIPLES

(Mt x, 5-8)

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 doc.u.ment 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 a.s.signed 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)

This is a proverbial saying occurring seven times in the Gospels (eight times in the received text); three times in Matthew, twice each in Mark and Luke. It also occurs eight times in the Apocalypse. Each evangelist has a form of his own, to which he adheres thruout. The saying sounds here as if it were intended to drive home what has just been said about Elijah, and may with propriety be a.s.signed to the same hand as the preceding verse.

THE OCCASION OF p.r.o.nOUNCING WOES UPON THE GALILEAN CITIES

(Mt xi, 20)

This verse is quoted here chiefly because it furnishes so excellent an ill.u.s.tration of the nature of the introductory formulae found in Matthew and Luke in conjunction with their Q material. Sometimes, as in the case of the Lord's Prayer, such an introduction is present in Luke and absent in Matthew. In the present instance Matthew alone has it. Yet few pa.s.sages from Q disclose a closer verbal agreement with the corresponding pa.s.sage in Luke than the pa.s.sage to which this verse is an introduction. In all such instances as this the writer sees no difficulty in ascribing the introductions to the evangelist in whose pages they are found.

REASON a.s.sIGNED FOR THE p.r.o.nUNCIATION OF THE WOES

(Mt xi, 23_b_-24)

Following the woes, Matthew alone has this statement of the reasons for their being given. He has a doublet for vs. 24 in x, 15. As this latter is paralleled by Lk x, 12, it may in that context be a.s.signed to Q; here it may be a.s.signed either to Matthew or one of his early editors. There is at least no new Q material here.

"COME UNTO ME"

(Mt xi, 28-30)

It is impossible to suppose that this unusually fine utterance could have been in Luke's copy of Q and could have been omitted by him. Yet of the five scholars quoted in Table II (pp. 110-11), Wellhausen alone attributes it to Q. The others all attribute the preceding section to Q, but stop at vs. 27, where the parallelism between Matthew and Luke breaks off. This is necessary, of course, upon the a.s.sumption that nothing should be attributed to Q except what is thus paralleled. But if anything stood in Matthew's recension of Q that was not also in Luke's, certainly these verses stood there. Weiss's remarks concerning them indicate that he has no reason for a.s.signing them, as he does, to a special source, except the fact that they do not appear in Luke. He says "Since these words are not in Luke we have no right to refer them to Q. This is not to say that they are the work of Matthew; they have been taken from another source, oral or written."[108] It has been pointed out by Montefiore that these verses are largely made up of quotations. "The last bit of vs. 29 comes from Jer xi, 7, and the rest is an adapted echo of Sirach li, 23 seq."[109] The parallel, however, as Montefiore also says, covers vss. 25-27 as well as those now under consideration. Loisy[110] argues that the words cannot safely be ascribed to Jesus, but adds, "It may be readily admitted that the evangelist found them in the collection of Logia."

A SAYING ABOUT THE LAW

(Mt xii, 5-7)

This saying occurs, not in the midst of Q material, but as an appendix to a discussion which Matthew and Luke both take from Mark. The pa.s.sage seems to be well attested textually. Considering its context, and its relation to the material immediately preceding, it seems natural to a.s.sign the verses either to Matthew himself or to some early editor, rather than to seek a special source for them or to attribute them to Matthew's Q. Vs. 7 has already been considered in connection with ix, 13. If the ??a?t???? in this latter verse were singular instead of plural it would certainly be taken as a reference to the condemnation and death of Jesus; indeed, it may naturally, tho not with so much a.s.surance, be so taken as it stands.

AN OLD TESTAMENT QUOTATION

(Mt xii, 17-21)

This long quotation, occurring as it does in the midst of a Marcan narrative, may be ascribed either to Matthew or one of his sources; but there is no evidence that such quotations were part of Q.

"GENERATION OF VIPERS"

(Mt xii, 34_a_)

Ge???ata ???d??? is used once by Matthew and Luke in common (Mt iii, 7; Lk iii, 7) and twice by Matthew alone. The question in which it occurs here seems to render the statement in vss. 36-37 less justifiable. The repet.i.tion, not only of the one phrase, but of the idea, in the section might be taken to indicate that this half of a verse is an addition either by Matthew or by some later hand.

A SAYING ABOUT THE JUDGMENT

(Mt xii, 36-37)

If Matthew be credited with the insertion of vs. 34_a_, it is not unlikely that he added these verses also, as a corrective of the impression that might be drawn from the previous insertion. In character, however, the verses are similar enough to Q, and might be a.s.signed to Matthew's recension.

AN INTERPRETATION OF THE SIGN OF JONAH

(Mt xii, 40)

This verse occurs in a pa.s.sage concerning the demand for a sign, which Matthew and Luke have evidently taken from Q. Luke's form of the saying about Jonah is evidently the original one. Matthew's reference to the three days spent by Jesus "in the heart of the earth" is _post eventum_, and even so cannot be early. It may perhaps be taken for a gloss, or it may have been added by Matthew. It may equally well have been added by some editor of Q before that doc.u.ment fell into Matthew's hands; there is nothing to determine, except that the strong resemblance, almost amounting to ident.i.ty, between Matthew and Luke in the rest of the pa.s.sage may properly incline one toward the a.s.sumption of a late addition.

THE WEED IN THE FIELD

(Mt xiii, 24-30)

This parable, tho it has a Q sound in the first verse, is too long for any recension of that doc.u.ment. It is better a.s.signed to a special source, oral or written. The allegorical character of the parable, with its elaborate interpretation in vss. 36-43, seems to indicate its comparatively late origin, and it may be based upon Mk iv, 26-29. At all events it should not be ascribed to Q.

THE PARABLES OF THE TREASURE, THE PEARL, THE FISH-NET, AND THE SCRIBE INSTRUCTED IN THE KINGDOM

(Mt xiii, 44-52)