Re: What's Wrong with Q?

From: Kenneth Litwak (kenneth@sybase.com)
Date: Sun Oct 15 1995 - 08:05:55 EDT


I wonder if Carl would mind explaining what "wave of right-wing fundamentalist
hogwash" is supposed to mean, to whom it applies and what it has to do with
wholly speculative questions about source criticism of the Gospels.
We don't have a Q. We don't have anything but what we've got, and there is
entirely too little knowledge about their origins to formulate any
theory that is much more than speculation. If we want to speak about Greek,
I've been required in class twice this semester so far to read the Greek
text of the Synoptics, in places where the strongest argumetns for Q are
usually made, like the narrative of John the Baptist in Mark 1 and apar.,
and have found none of the documentary theories plausible based on just
looking at the text and not reading any scholars on the subject
(that was the assignment: read nothing but the text itself). Surely
there is nothing "Fundamentalist" aobut finding all current docuentary
theories (or even my own view, which is primarily oral) to lacking in
evidence to put forward seriously, let alone to base exegetical
decisions on. We have the Gospels as they are. I can't expalin their
origin or relationships, and neitgher can anyone else with anything that
even begins to approach an empirically-based approach. I'd
suggest treating the whole thing as insoluble and irrelevant and moving on.

Ken Litwak
GTU
Bezerkley, CA



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