Monday, March 2, 2009

Thomas and the Q source... Ana.

Some scholars have said that the Q source was made up completely of Jesus' sayings and that the community it was written to was not concerned about Jesus' activities and experiences. 
But many other scholars have doubts about that. There are in fact some stories in the Q source (the temptation of Jesus and the healing of the centurion's son.) But there are no more narratives in the Q source that are known for sure, such as a Passion narrative. The only way to find out is to see the similarities in Matthew and Luke, that re not found in Mark. Yet the Passion narrative between Matthew and Luke are different than Mark.  But that doesn't mean that the accounts were specifically taken from the Q source. There are other sources, such as M and L, that could have been used.
The biggest difference between the Q source and Thomas has to do with the way different communities had preserved them. Thomas denies the future coming of the Son of Man in judgement upon Earth. This theme, though, is important in the Q source. But some scholars, though, say that maybe the theme was added on later. The Q source is thought to be originally not apocalyptic "in its orientation." If the apocalyptic sayings were removed  it would be very similar to Thomas. Therefore, the Q source was originally like Thomas.

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