The Biblical Source: The Q Source

The Q Source The Biblical source “Q” is an abbreviation for the German word Quelle, which means “source;” it is a traditional term used to identify the source material for the sayings of Jesus that Matthew and Luke share, but that Mark lacks. Though some scholars use the term exclusively to differentiate between the common material and the material exclusive to each book, some believe that “Q” material originated from a single source (Quelle) of non-Markan material that Matthew and Luke both consulted. The approximately 235 shared verses of Matthew and Luke include similar agreement in wording, similarities between order of events, and consistent theology. There is no physical proof that the Q source exists, aside from the trends pointed

Due to this lack of evidence, many scholars believe that the Q source is nonexistent; the primary alternate views of the Two-Document hypothesis seek to substantiate the common material with the intent of making the Q source unnecessary. One of the most frequent opposing viewpoints is that the shared material between Matthew and Luke originated in the Gospel of Matthew, which Luke then used to compose his own book. Proponents of Farrer’s Theory, the Three-Source Hypothesis, and the Neo-Griesbach Hypothesis expand this view. There is another hypothesis proposed by Martin Hengel that agrees with the Two-Source Hypothesis in that he concurs that Mark was the first gospel, but he suggests, “that Matthew may have been earlier than Luke and depended on

Since the conception of the Q hypothesis over a century and a half ago , it remained a mere idea concocted by Biblical scholars; that is, until the discovery of a Coptic translation of the apocryphal book, the Gospel of Thomas, at Nag Hammadi between 1945-1946. The Gospel of Thomas contains “sayings and parables of Jesus with little or no narrative ,” much like the supposed Q source. However, the document’s earliest estimation only dates back to 150 BCE, which is seventy years after the canonical gospels and over 100 years after the alleged composition of Q. Additionally, scholars consider the Gospel of Thomas to be gnostic writing, which contain none of the gospel story’s crucifixion or resurrection narratives. Because the Q source is composed entirely of shared material from Matthew and Luke, both containing the passion and Easter narratives, it is even more unlikely that the Gospel of Thomas is the Q