Appendix: Q & the Common Saying Tradition
Did previous important texts about the HJ existed before Mark?
Nobody knows for sure.
We will examine here hypothetical documents.
- The roots of Q point to a Greek style of teaching known as Cynicism, one unlikely to belong to any individual, let alone a Jewish preacher of the Kingdom.
- The message is often too radical for a community
The first two layers are sayings, often unattributed.
The name 'Jesus' appears only twice in Q1, where it can have very well be added later on.
There can be meaning without character.
Group of people develop or reuse ideas, principles, proverbs, which have in themselves at that time all the meaning required! Then, later attribution of all these ideas to a single authoritative name is a recurrent pattern of sectarian and nationalist movements. This evolution clearly shows up from any critical analysis on how the gospels are constructed.
Group of people develop or reuse ideas, principles, proverbs, which have in themselves at that time all the meaning required! Then, later attribution of all these ideas to a single authoritative name is a recurrent pattern of sectarian and nationalist movements. This evolution clearly shows up from any critical analysis on how the gospels are constructed.
This is also the opinion of R.Price in
Deconstructing Jesus:
"Proverbs enshrine wisdom. They crystallize insights about life that immediately
ring true to experience once we hear them,
though chances are we ourselves would never have thought of them.
If their truth resonates deep inside us, they have, as it were, their own empirical verification
and do not rely upon the authority of a great name.
It is only later, once scribes seek extraneous theological legitimation for a collection of sayings, in a theological context,
that the sayings collection comes to be judged and legitimated by analogy to revelations and prophecies."
though chances are we ourselves would never have thought of them.
If their truth resonates deep inside us, they have, as it were, their own empirical verification
and do not rely upon the authority of a great name.
It is only later, once scribes seek extraneous theological legitimation for a collection of sayings, in a theological context,
that the sayings collection comes to be judged and legitimated by analogy to revelations and prophecies."