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The Gospel styles and the Q source hypothesis
1. The Gospel styles and the Q source hypothesis
This page is under development.
2. The Gospel styles and the Q source hypothesis
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke are called the "
Synoptic" Gospels, where "
Synoptic" means "
same view". There are similarities and differences between these Gospels. The book of John has a different structure.
The "
Q source" gospel, also called the "
Q Gospel", etc., dating from about 1900, assumes that the saying of Jesus were written in a
lost set of manuscripts, called "
Q", and used by Matthew, Mark and Luke to write their gospels.
The letter "
Q" in "
Q source" comes from the German word
"Quelle" ≈ "source, spring (of water)".
There are many problems with this assumption. Note that John has a very different writing style.
3. Psalms 104:10
Psalms 104:10 He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills. [kjv]
ο εξαποστελλων πηγας εν φαραγξιν ανα μεσον των ορεων διελευσονται υδατα [lxx]
… Brunnen quellen … Gründen… Wasser zwischen … Bergen … [lu]
The letter "
Q" in "
Q source" comes from the German word
"Quelle" ≈ "source, spring (of water)".
4. Psalms 104:10
KJV: He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills.
Hebrew: המשלח מעינים בנחלים בין הרים יהלכון׃
Greek: ο εξαποστελλων πηγας εν φαραγξιν ανα μεσον των ορεων διελευσονται υδατα
Luther: Du lässest Brunnen quellen in den Gründen, daß die Wasser zwischen den Bergen hinfließen,
5. Abstraction
To
abstract is to
take away from the essentials and thereby to ignore certain differences.
The
similarity is what is the same. The
difference is what is different.
Human brains are built for complex abstraction.
The Latin word
"abstractus" ≈ "take away from". In abstract art, something is taken away, something remains, one needs to then interpret what is meant or intended.
6. Abstraction with algebra
Algebra can be used to abstract from a potentially infinite number of possibilities to a finite representation of those possibilities. Consider the following pattern.
| Abstraction |
| f(0) = 2*0+1 = 1 |
f(4) = 2*4+1 = 9 |
f(8) = 2*8+1 = 17 |
| f(1) = 2*1+1 = 3 |
f(5) = 2*5+1 = 11 |
f(9) = 2*9+1 = 19 |
| f(2) = 2*2+1 = 5 |
f(6) = 2*6+1 = 13 |
f(10) = 2*10+1 = 21 |
| f(3) = 2*3+1 = 7 |
f(7) = 2*7+1 = 15 |
... |
Many students have trouble abstracting the above to the following function.
f(x) = 2*x+1
7. Snoopy and Woodstock
Text: from Peanuts cartoon of March 23, 1990, by Charles Schultz. Snoopy is talking to Woodstock, who says nothing.
SNOOPY: And sometimes when a rabbit is frightened, it will sit very still like this so no one will see it...
SNOOPY: Of course you can still see me! I was just giving an example!!
SNOOPY: You can't explain anything to a bird!
Many people have trouble with abstraction - looking at similarities and ignoring differences. If they think not, try having them write a small computer program that requires abstraction. Many professional programmers have problems making appropriate abstractions.
8. Abstraction and psychological chunking
Part of the process of abstraction is what Hofstadter calls "psychological chunking". Hofstadter, D. (1979).
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An eternal golden braid. New York: Vintage Books., p. 285-287.
Hofstadter relates how Adriaan de Groot performed studies of
expert and
novice chess players in the 1940's.
9. Synoptic Gospels
Synoptic means "
same" and "
view" where the "
same" is not an analogy but, rather, "
together". Matthew, Mark, and Luke are the "
synoptic" gospels.
The synoptic gospels are Matthew, Mark and Luke.
Matthew: bottom-up (chronologically, traditionally to the Jews)
Mark: bottom-up (chronologically, from Peter)
Luke: bottom-up (chronologically, historically, by Luke, traditionally to the Gentiles)
John: organized very differently. Why?
10. Agreement of a symphony
Acts 15:15 And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, [kjv]
και τουτω συμφωνουσιν οι λογοι των προφητων καθως γεγραπται [gnt]
… concordant … [v]
The ancient Greek word
"συμφωνία" ≈ "agreement" and comes from the words for
"same voice". The English word
"symphony" cames from a group of people with the
"same voice".
The Latin word
"concordo" ≈ "agree, harmonize" and is the source of the English word
"concordant".
11. Acts 15:15
KJV: And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written,
Greek: και τουτω συμφωνουσιν οι λογοι των προφητων καθως γεγραπται
Greek today: Και με τουτο συμφωνουσιν οι λογοι των προφητων, καθως ειναι γεγραμμενον
Latin: et huic concordant verba prophetarum sicut scriptum est
Slavonic: и сему согласуют словеса пророк, якоже пишет:
Russian: И с сим согласны слова пророков, как написано:
12. Abstractions of the Gospels
To make an "
abstraction" is to look at "
similarities" and, at some level, ignore "
differences".
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke are called the "
Synoptic" Gospels, where "
Synoptic" means "
same view". There are similarities and differences between these Gospels.
These similarities and differences go down to the word and character level.
13. Matthew and Luke
1 Jesus teaches people
2 Matthew writes Gospel
3 Luke writes Gospel
Luke records and correctly reports what people remembered as to the meaning of what Jesus said, sometimes using other words. This often loses the additional meanings as recorded in Matthew.
14. Differences
Many of the differences between Matthew and Luke can be explained by the context in which each was written.
Jesus: Jew, spoke Aramaic and Greek.
Matthew: Jew, spoke Aramaic and Greek, eyewitness, took notes.
Luke: Greek, spoke Greek, interviewed eyewitnesses about their memory.
15. Transcription
It appears that Matthew may have not understood what Jesus was saying. If Matthew is transcribing what was said, there is no need for Matthew to actually know the precise meaning of what was said.
If Mark (Peter's Gospel) is writing what Peter (and Mark) remembered, inaccuracies can get into the text. The same applies to John.
If Luke is interviewing and writing what people remember after some 20 years or more, additional inaccuracies can get into the text.
16. Textual criticism
If one assumes that what was said was transcribed verbatim, as appears to be the case with Matthew, there are considerations that arise.
How well was the text preserved?
What transcription errors might have been made?
17. Federalist Papers
The difficulty of assigning authorship to written works is clearly not easy as evidenced by the difficulty of determining who, of three known authors, wrote each letter in the Federalist Paper collection.
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Details are left as a future topic.
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18. Gospel structure
From a computer science point of view, Matthew, Mark and Luke are written in a bottom-up forward-chaining manner.
John, on the other hand, is written in a
top-down backward-chaining manner. This is the way computer scientists (almost by definition) think (or should think) about problem solving, etc. This is
not the way most people think about solving problems.
Jesus at times uses a
top-down backward-chaining style but it is not as obvious.
19. History
The first to have the idea of "Q" appears to be Herbert Marsh about 1801.
Friedrich Schleiermacher next took the idea of "Q" about 1832.
20. Word of mouth
The "
Q source" hypothesis
assumes that people needed to write down what they heard in order to not forget.
This appears to be somewhat true as Luke lacks the precise and intricate word and play on word structure of Matthew. What people remembered when interviewed by Luke was a more literal version of what was said rather than the precise wording with double meanings and play on word usages.
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Details are left as a future topic.
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21. End of page
