Adding GTh, pt. 5

Remember that we're looking for the simplest solution, that still explains all the evidence.  Due to the interlocking relationships among the four traditions of Thomasine sayings we've found in the synoptics (Markan, Q, Matthean, and Marcionic/Lukan), we still need to consider two simpler possibilities--under the assumption, that is, that GTh predates the synoptics:

a) One is that the Thomasine sayings unique to Mc/GLk were actually found in Q, and Matthew chose to ignore them. 

b) The other is that the Thomasine sayings unique to GMt were actually found in Q, and Marcion/Luke chose to ignore them.

Of course, there is an even simpler solution:

ab) The Thomasine sayings unique to GMt, and those unique to Mc/GLk, were all found in Q, and Matthew and Marcion/Luke each ignored the ones they disliked.  (And, some may have been ignored by both and are now lost to us.)

We don't have Q at our disposal, so we can't say with certainty what its contents were.  Scholars have assembled a "Q" document, based on material shared between GMt and GLk, but were those the only contents of Q?  We really have no way of knowing, and it is just as likely that there was more there than that the shared material is a complete description of its contents.  If there was more there, some could have found its way into GMt without finding its way into GLk, and vice versa.  So how are we do decide among the scenarios presented above?




First notice that the Thomasine sayings unique to Mc/GLk fall within Luke’s Great Interpolation—a section that intersperses uniquely Lukan material among various pieces of Matthean material.  That context suggests that Marcion/Luke's use of GTh here is unique.

And, Matthew tends to duplicate his sources (like GMk) rather closely, engaging in some abbreviation and fatigue at times but usually trying to remain faithful to the original words, so we tend to need reasons to explain his omissions, especially from such an important source as the Q source. 

But none of the GTh sayings unique to GLk/Mc seem like the sort of thing Matthew would have ignored: 

• Lk 11:27-28 ("blessed the womb") expresses the sentiment of putting God before family—but Matthew agrees with this in Mt  12:46-50.  Matthew uses the Marcan version of the pericope, whereas Luke/Marcion rewrites it here into the response to the woman in the crowd (having already used the Markan version himself in Lk 8:19-21).  This looks like a typical instance of Matthew using the only version he knew—the Markan version—almost word-for-word, whereas Luke has for whatever reason chosen to be more creative in splitting and rewriting his sources.  I see no reason to suspect Matthew of ignoring the woman in the crowd, whereas I see every reason for Marcion/Luke to have added it himself.

• Lk 12:13-14 likewise expresses nothing that Matthew would have had a problem with (“who made me a judge or divider?”).  Matthew is clearly not interested in fairness.  Why would he have left this saying out?  It would conform to his ethics rather nicely.  

• The follow-up parable in Lk 12:16-21 ("that very night") would likewise have met with Matthean approval.  The rich man who loses his possessions at death undergoes just the kind of reversal that Matthew lays out in various ways in the Sermon on the Mount.  

• And Lk 12:49 ("to cast fire") is exactly the kind of stern pronouncement that Matthew would have sympathized with.  Why would Matthew have ignored any of these sayings in his sources?

• (Lk 17, "look here/there", is a complicated construction that seems to involve conflation of two parallel sayings, so comparison with GMt is unfortunately not straightforward.)

Whereas, when we examine the GTh sayings unique to GMt, we find that Marcion would have had good reason to leave them out:

• Mt 5:14, the “city on a hill”, would have been read by Marcion as potential support for his enemies in Rome;

• Mt 6:3, on keeping almsgiving a secret, would have been read by Marcion to have been critical towards his well-known attempts at donating his riches to Rome;

• Mt 7:6, on giving to “dogs” and “swine”, would have been read by Marcion as an attack on his gentile-centered church, and his anti-Judaizing efforts in general;

• Mt 10:16, “be wise as serpents and harmless as doves”, may have just been dropped inadvertently by Marcion as he rewrote the commissioning of the Twelve to avoid the anti-Gentile sentiment found in the Matthean version;

• Mt 11:28-30, “my yoke is easy,” may have been avoided by Marcion because he in fact did demand a lot from his followers in terms of celibacy;

• Mt 13:24-30, the Parable of the Tares, may well have been read by Marcion as grounds for an attack on Marcion’s own church;

• Mt 13:44, the Parable of the Hidden Treasure, may have been ignored by Marcion as a bitter reminder of the rejection of his gift to the Roman church;

• Similarly for Mt 13:45, the Pearl of Great Price; Marcion had tried himself to purchase the pearl of great price, by making his donation to Rome, but was rejected.  This parable would not have met with his approval.

• Mt 13:47-50, the Parable of the Dragnet, may have been rejected as too judgmental, in the vein of the Matthean school—Marcion’s god was not the god of the Old Testament, and he did not wish to emphasize the idea that failure to adhere to a moral code like the Jewish law merited damnation, or that once received into the church, one’s soul might yet stand in judgment.  (And besides, he may have rewritten this parable as the Miraculous Catch);

• Mt 18:20, “where two or three are gathered,” would also have been seen by Marcion as inaccurate, for he disagreed—gathering in the name of Jesus was not enough, for the Roman church did as much—the verse implies a unity to the church that Marcion fought against.

So far, the evidence tends to support the scenario in which Matthew was more faithful to the contents of the Q source, but Marcion/Luke left some of this material out, adding a few new sayings from GTh to his unique redaction.  While scenario ab above is the very simplest explanation for Thomasine sayings in GMt and Mc/GLk, the evidence seems to speak against it.

We'll next consider the Thomasine sayings unique to Luke in more detail, to see what more evidence we can find in them.