I'll put together a briefing paper on this topic.? Please allow me a few days.
For the record, no one suggests that "Q" is the original of the synoptic gospels.? It is a 1900-era German supposition that a single Greek source document was compiled from original Hebrew versions and early Greek drafts of the individual synoptic gospels.? The theory postulates that the author(s) of Matthew and Luke drew upon two sources, the earliest completed gospel (Mark) and "Q", when writing their documents.? The theory attempts to account for the overlap of the sayings and activities of Jesus in the three gospels.? A key point in the Q theory is that Greek versions of all three synoptic gospels were COMPLETED around AD 50 when ample eyewitnesses were available to validate them.
Of course, the overlap (and differences) can also be explained by the Apostles being eye-witnesses to the ministry of Jesus.?
The theory is loosely based on harmonization of the synoptic gospels whereby some material is common to all gospels (Q), some is unique to Matthew (M) or Luke (L), and some is shared between Matthew and Luke only (ML). Matthew contains about 92% of Mark's content while Luke has about 58% of Mark.
By the way, the Q theory does not negate Matthew, Mark (for Peter), and Luke (for Paul) as the principal authors of the gospels that bear their names.
That said, there are now a number of different twists on the Q (two source) theory.? I'll try to include the more prevalent ones in the paper.
Blessings,
Ray
On Thursday, 28 April 2022, 03:06:57 pm AEST, Ian <imurray8@...> wrote:
Hi Ray,
We don’t know who actually wrote the synoptic gospels whether it was the disciples themselves or their scribes. Some books? I have read written by bible scholars refer to a hypothetical document “Q”.This mystery document is supposed to be the first ever written account of the synoptic gospels and these accounts have been copied,? translated and modified down through the ages. Whether the theory is that there were three documents “Q “, one for each disciple, or just one, I am not sure.
I would appreciate your opinion on how the very first accounts of each of the synoptic gospels have been identified and your thoughts on a document or documents “Q”
