THE ORIGINAL ORDER OF Q
The following tables are intended to throw light upon the probable
original order of Q. They will also facilitate comparison of the Q
material in the two tables of contents given on pp. 222-25. The section
numbers at the left are those in the tables for Matthew and Luke
respectively on those pages. Table VII gives the sections in the order in
which they come in Matthew, with the numbers of the corresponding sections
as they occur in Luke; Table VIII, the sections as they come in Luke, with
numbers of corresponding sections in Matthew. Unduplicated sections are
not listed.
Since Matthew shows everywhere a tendency to group his material into
discourses, it is _a priori_ probable that the original order of the Q
material is to be sought in Luke and not in Matthew. Given this tendency
to combine, reasons are obvious for Matthew's combining, in his Sermon on
the Mount, much matter that Luke has scattered thru his Gospel. But if the
Q material originally stood in such continuous discourses, no motive can
be assigned for Luke's breaking up these discourses and scattering their
material thru so many chapters. The assumption that Matthew has combined,
in his Sermon on the Mount, material which originally was separated as it
still is in Luke, is corroborated by an analysis of that Sermon, which
shows it to be anything but a unity. Much of the material which Matthew
has combined into this Sermon has no duplicate in Luke. There is no means
of telling where in Matthew's Q this unduplicated material stood. But the
fact that the duplicated matter has been brot forward by Matthew from
later chapters in Luke would give the presumption that such of the
unduplicated material as has no necessary unity where it stands also stood
in QMt, not at the beginning where it now is, but later; and this is also
what we should expect.
TABLE VII
------------
MT | LK
------|-----
Sec. | Sec.
------------
1 = 1
2 = 2
3 = 3
4 = 4
7 = 5
11 = 6
12 = 73
13 = 20
14 = 75
17 = 61
20 = 76
22 = 8
23 = 8
26 = 39
27 = 78
29 = 53
30 = 46
31 = 73
32 = 51
33 = 9
34 = 12
36 = 40
37 = 7
36 = 64
40 = 13
41 = 15
42 = 16
44 = 17
45 = 66
46 = 25
47 = 27
48 = 23
50 = 23
52 = 29
53 = 30
54 = 24
54 = 31
55 = 32
55 = 28
56 = 50
57 = 11
58 = 48
58 = 21
59 = 59
60 = 70
60 = 84
61 = 34
62 = 18
63 = 19
63 = 74
64 = 33
65 = 36
68 = 41
68 = 49
69 = 14
70 = 43
71 = 45
72 = 44
73 = 42
74 = 22
75 = 37
76 = 62
77 = 63
82 = 10
83 = 79
84 = 77
86 = 89
86 = 38
91 = 47
92 = 47
93 = 67
94 = 81
95 = 86
96 = 82
97 = 92
98 = 55
99 = 56
-----------
TABLE VIII
------------
LK | MT
------|-----
Sec. | Sec.
------------
1 = 1
2 = 2
3 = 3
4 = 4
5 = 7
6 = 11
7a = 37
8 = 22
8 = 23
9 = 33
10 = 82
11 = 57
12 = 34
13 = 40
14 = 69
15 = 41
16 = 42
17 = 44
18 = 62
19 = 63
20 = 13
21 = 58
22 = 74
23 = 48
24 = 54
25 = 46
27 = 47
28 = 55
29 = 52
30 = 53
31 = 54
32 = 55
33 = 64
34 = 61
36 = 65
37 = 75
38 = 86
39 = 26
40 = 36
41 = 68
42 = 73
43 = 70
44 = 72
45 = 71
46 = 30
47 = 91
47 = 92
48 = 58
49 = 68
50 = 56
51 = 32
53 = 29
55 = 98
56 = 99
59 = 59
61 = 17
62 = 76
63 = 77
64 = 38
66 = 45
67 = 93
70 = 60
73 = 12
73a = 31
74 = 63
75 = 14
76 = 20
77 = 84
78 = 27
79 = 82
81 = 94
82 = 96
84 = 60
85 = 17
86 = 15
89 = 86
-----------
Taking the hint that Luke's order probably represents the original order
of the Q material, we find this supposition confirmed by the present
arrangement. In spite of Matthew's transpositions, the sections in Luke
and Matthew, as grouped in Table IX, still stand in the same _relative_
order.
TABLE IX
Lk Mt
1 = 1 The preaching of the Baptist
2 = 2 The messianic announcement of the Baptist
3 = 3 The temptation
4 = 4 Blessed are the poor
5 = 7 Blessed are ye that hunger
6 = 11 Blessed are ye when men hate you
8 = 23 Love your enemies
13 = 40 Tree known by its fruits
15 = 41 Why call ye me "Lord, Lord"?
16 = 42 House on rock and sand (with and without foundation)
17 = 44 The centurion's servant healed
18 = 62 Question of John the Baptist, and Jesus' answer
19 = 63 Jesus' testimony to John
25 = 46 Two men who would follow Jesus
27 = 47 The harvest is great, the laborers are few
29 = 52 Instructions to disciples as to what to take on journey
30 = 53 Conduct on the way; greet the house
31 = 54 Whoever receives you, receives you not
32 = 55 More tolerable for Sodom
47 = 91 Woes upon the Pharisees
47 = 92 Ye shut up the kingdom of heaven (take away the key of knowledge)
55 = 98 The watching servant
56 = 99 The true and false servants
62 = 76 Parable of the Mustard Seed
63 = 77 Parable of the Yeast
81 = 94 The day of the Son of man
82 = 96 The days of Noah
Each of these groups--one of seven sections, two of four, and six of two
sections each--probably stood, within itself, in the same order as that in
which we now find it in Matthew and Luke.
The sections grouped in Table X have suffered such slight transpositions
as to make it probable that each of the groups constituted a continuous
passage, probably in the order preserved by Luke.
TABLE X
Lk Mt
21 = 58 Things hidden and revealed
23 = 48 The mission of the twelve
24 = 54 Whoever shall not receive you
25 = 46 Two men who would follow Jesus
27 = 47 The harvest is great, the laborers are few
28 = 55 I send you forth as lambs among wolves
29 = 52 Instructions as to what to take on journey
30 = 53 Greet the house
31 = 54 Whoever receives you
32 = 55 More tolerable for Sodom
33 = 63 Woes upon Galilean cities
34 = 61 He that receiveth you receiveth me
36 = 65 Wise and prudent; all things are given unto me of my Father
41 = 68 The Beelzebul controversy
42 = 73 About backsliding, "empty, swept and garnished"
43 = 70 The sign of Jonah
44 = 72 Queen of the South
45 = 71 The men of Nineveh
49 = 68 Blasphemy against the Son of man
48 = 58 Fearless confession; be not afraid of them
50 = 56 Take no thot what ye shall answer
51 = 32 About care
53 = 29 About treasures, not on the earth
81 = 94 The day of the Son of man
82 = 96 The days of Noah
85 = 97 The one taken, the other left
86 = 95 Where the body is, there the eagles will be gathered
There is one other item, which I owe to Mr. Streeter,[136] that strongly
supports the assumption that Luke has preserved the Q material in its most
nearly original form. That is, that Luke allows himself much less liberty
in the rearrangement of Mark's order than does Matthew. The best single
testimony to his faithfulness to Mark's order is seen in the fact that
where he makes his great omission from Mk (Mk vi, 45-viii, 26), beginning
at that point his great interpolation (Lk ix, 51-xviii, 14), he does not,
after returning to Mark, go back and pick up any single item that he has
omitted. Detached sayings, some brief, and some, like the Beelzebul
controversy, of considerable length, which he places in a different
connection from that in which Mark gives them, can uniformly be shown to
have stood in Q as well as in Mark,[137] and Luke follows Q's order with
Q's wording. In the earlier part of his narrative, Luke does permit
himself some little freedom in deviating from Mark's order; notably in the
imprisonment of John the Baptist, the call of the first disciples, and the
rejection at Nazareth (in each case, apparently, at the expense of some
anachronism). Except for these instances his transpositions of Marcan
material are slight, and usually amount rather to its rearrangement within
a single section than to a genuine change of order in the structure. An
exception to this rule is his passion narrative, where his use of Mark is
greatly influenced by his special source.
Q was apparently a collection of sayings, without chronological framework
or data of any sort. But to the sayings of Jesus there was prefixed a
slight account of the preaching of John the Baptist. This will not seem
strange when it is remembered that Q was a Palestinian document, and that
the cult of John the Baptist long survived the origin of Christianity.
What is not so easy to explain is Q's apparent inclusion of one narrative,
the story of the centurion's servant. It also contained an account of the
sending out of the twelve, but apparently no reference to the passion. The
absence of narratives, or of any chronological hints, would make its
rearrangement easy; perhaps it suffered some derangement at the hands of
those who added the sections peculiar to Matthew's and Luke's recensions
(as it did at the hands of Matthew himself), and who are responsible for
some of the deviations between the two. As Mr. Streeter suggests, if Mark
were lost, we could not, from Matthew and Luke, be sure either of Mark's
content or his order. No more can we of Q. About all that can be said is
that the strong probability is that Luke more nearly than Matthew
reproduces that order.