Lectures - The Case for Q (The Lost Sayings Gospel)

Did Matthew and Luke use a lost source to write their gospels—or can the Synoptic Problem be explained without Q? Which explanation best accounts for their relationship: the Two-Source Hypothesis, the Farrer hypothesis, or Matthean priority? In this live lecture, John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place makes the case for Q (Quelle) and the “Two Source Hypothesis,” while also considering the alternate Farrer and Matthean Priority hypotheses. Since the advent of modern Biblical studies two centuries ago, scholars have concluded that the gospels we call Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are not the accounts of independent eyewitnesses, but are instead literarily dependent on one another. This means that their authors did not all sit down to write from scratch: either one was first and the other two worked from it, or the third worked from the second which worked from the first, or perhaps all three were working from a lost source. The most accepted explanation is that Mark was the earliest gospel, which the authors of Matthew and Luke used to construct their own texts. However, these latter two gospels overlap in other places, especially around important sayings of Jesus like the Beatitudes. This means that their authors would have had to have been sharing a second, lost source which scholars call “Q” from the German quelle (“source”). This lecture is part of our series exploring Christianity and the Bible from an academic perspective through history, mythology, archaeology, theology, and biblical studies. In this presentation we focus on the hypothetical Lost Sayings Gospel Q. 📚 Browse our catalogue of free lectures at https://www.centreplace.ca/lectures Your generous support allows us to offer these lectures at no cost. Please consider making a donation (tax deductible in the US and Canada): ❤️ https://www.centreplace.ca/donate ️