Description
Is Q Among the Apostles?
There are two profoundly simple and controversial reasons why the answer to the question, Is Q Among the Apostles? is, No. First, to define the Q-Source as material in common to Matthew and Luke but not appearing in Mark is a definition which does not identify THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST. Historically, THE GOSPEL of Jesus is contained in the Fourfold Gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and the Fourfold Testimony of the Fourfold Gospel is presented first.
Second, we accept the definition of the Q-Source and the examples of hypothetical Q-Source given by those who support the Q-Source hypothesis. The supporters of the Q-Source hypothesis are truly indefatigable and have expended enormous labor in defense of their understanding of the Q-Source. We have examined the best arguments for and the best examples of what is identified as Q-Source material. Our conclusion is that the hypothetical Q-Source has no distinctive written syntax. Without a distinctive syntax, the hypothetical Q-Source cannot be distinguished from the syntax of Matthew’s or the syntax of Luke’s Gospel. Without a distinctive syntax, the hypothetical Q-Source does not exist. What, then, can be said about the enormous monument of Q-Source research? It is like the beautiful glass in a Tiffany window what has been disassembled. Light passing through and reflected from the disassembled glass is still strikingly beautiful. However, the Tiffany window also has a design. So, too, the hypothetical Q-Source dealing with the sayings of Jesus has its beauty, but what Jesus said and did are contained in the design and integration of the Fourfold Gospel: Matthew and Mark and Luke and John.
This volume is necessarily technical and polemical, but it is not intended to be disrespectful, arrogant or adversarial toward those whose assumptions and conclusions we consider to be in error. ἐραύνησον τὰς γραφάς… καθ᾽ ἡμέραν ἀνακρίνοντες …εἰ ἔχοι ταῦτα οὕτως = search the Scriptures…daily engaging in careful inquiry…(to see) whether these things were so= ob sich diese Dinge so verhalten.
