Q

I’m sure you’ve been waiting all week to see what would be the topic for the letter Q. Would it be Queen Esther? Quirinius? The Quran? Nope, none of the above!

We are looking at Q.

Now, you may or may not have heard of the synoptic gospels, if you have, you’ve got a great head start, if you haven’t, well, you’ll have something new to show off to your friends.

The synoptic gospels are Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Not John. Poor John! If you’ve ever read through these gospels, you will have likely noticed that they are awfully similar. They have a very comparable focus and even their word choices are remarkably close.

Has that ever made you curious? Ever wondered why that might be?

If you haven’t rest assured that somebody has! This, my friends, is what we are talking about today is Q, otherwise known as the Q-source.

Going in, I was sure that it was called Q just so that people like me would have something unique to bring to the table during an alphabet study, but turns out that it comes from the German word Quelle, meaning source. Would you believe that in a room full of old school Lutherans, not one person knew the proper pronunciation? I couldn’t either!

This Q thing, what is it exactly?  How is it fitting in to all this jibber jabber?

Q is one proposed hypothesis that could explain why everything fits together so nicely. The idea behind Q is that it contains all of the things that Jesus said and authors, especially Matthew and Luke, would be able to use it as a help as they were writing.

Doesn’t seem too ridiculous, after all, look at Luke, he tells us straight up that he is using other sources.

And if we read through an account that is found in both gospels, such as loving your enemies, (Matthew 5:38-48 and Luke 6: 27-36) we see an awful lot of similarity.

But there are also some pretty extreme differences as well. Take for example v. 46 in the Matthew account where it says “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?” and compare it to Luke v. 32 “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.” (emphasis added) You’ll notice (because I very clearly pointed it out) that Matthew purposefully uses the word tax collector instead of sinner. Could be no big deal, tax collectors were seen as pretty bad dudes, but isn’t it weird that Matthew, the known tax collector would include that in this account? This is something that seems to go beyond just a set of sayings that people were conveying to one another, this really impacted Matthew as he heard it to the point where he wrote it as he understood it, not necessarily as it was commonly expressed.

The idea behind Q is one that would very neatly tie up all the loose ends. When we get confused about how the writings of the Gospels are so similar, it would be easiest to point to one common piece that would solve all of the problems. In doing so, however, we are not giving enough credit to the dynamic qualities of Jesus’ words. When he spoke it was more than just a quote to be transcribed, it was a message to be lived. They were teachings that stuck with people and struck them so deeply that they could insert themselves in the teaching and still have it ring as true as it did when it was preached for anyone else in the crowd.

Q could be a possibility. It’s still a hypothetical source that doesn’t have any physical proof behind it, but it does make sense as a theory. However, what we should not neglect when considering this is the power of Jesus’ words. They were, and are, strong enough to stand on their own, and be remembered and applied by all.