Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Adding GTh, pt. 8

In closing, we'll examine the last two uniquely Lukan logia on our list: logia 3:3a and 113.  We'll be looking to see if we can explain how parallels to these two logia found their way into the Marcionic/Lukan tradition, but not into the Matthean.



For logion 3:3a, the uniquely Lukan parallel is in Lk 17:21b (“the kingdom of God is in your midst”). 

But logion 113 also has a parallel with 17:20-21 in general.  And that is the other remaining logia in our list of uniquely Marcionic/Lukan parallels with GTh.  This is interesting.

Notice that Lk 17:20-21a seems to be a rewritten version of Mt 24:23-24/Mk 13:21-23 (rewritten, to include uniquely Lukan elements).  This triple-tradition material (plus the Lukan material) is then followed in Marcion/Luke by Lk 17:21b (again, also uniquely Lukan). 

But the next verses, Lk 17: 22-24, are a doubling of the previous verses.  What's more, this same doubling occurs in Mt 24:23-25, 26-27.  So the doubling, at least, appears to be a Q phenomenon.

Yet in this doubling in Marcion/Luke there seems to be another hint of a uniquely Marcionic/Lukan use of GTh here, in Lk 17:22, which echoes logia 38 and 59. 

So Lk 17:20-24 seems to be a complicated composition by the editor(s) of Luke/Marcion, using Q and probably a Markan source.  When we sort out all the sources, the pattern becomes clear, and is illustrated by the HSH.  The short version is:


a) First there was GTh 113.

b) The author of Secret Mark composed a short pericope out of GTh 113.  This did not yet include the Little Apocalypse; it was just a dialogue between Jesus and the disciples about where the kingdom was to be found.

c) The Q author expanded this pericope from Secret Mark, crafting another saying out of GTh 38 and 59 and attaching it.

d) Canonical Mark edited the version in Secret Mark, adding some details and removing others, and added the Little Apocalypse

e) Marcion took the Q version and wrote what we now know as Lk 17:20ff, and used the first lines of the Markan version separately to write what we now know as Lk 21:7ff, but excised the rest out since he'd already used the Q version, though he retained the Little Apocalypse

f) Matthew generally favors GMk when faced with a choice between different accounts, so he uses the Markan version in place of the Q version.  (And that's how the uniquely Lukan elements ended up in Marcion/Luke and not Matthew.)  However, a couple of small elements from the Q version creep into Matthew's account.


The long version is:


a) First came GTh 113:

  1. His disciples said to him, "When will the kingdom come?"
  2. "It will not come by watching for it.
  3. It will not be said, 'Look here!' or 'Look there!'
  4. Rather, the Father's kingdom is spread out upon the earth
  5. and people don't see it."

b) The first and third lines of this became the Markan version, Mk 13:3b-4a, 21, 29b, 33b, into which was inserted an expansion involving "signs", and which was probably originally a question about the Kingdom of Heaven/God:

  1. ...Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, "Tell us, when will [the Kingdom come]...?"
  2. [and what will be the sign when these things are accomplised?]
  3. ....And then if anyone says to you 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'Look, there he is!' do not believe it.
  4. ...You know that he is near, at the very gates
  5. ....But of that day or hour no one knows

The fact that "signs" are mentioned here suggests to me that this Markan version was in fact written by the author of Secret Mark, which featured esoteric teachings withheld from the larger community of believeres.  Furthermore, Secret Mark was a source for GJn, and John's preoccupation with signs was inherited from his sources. 

This author agrees that watching for the Kingdom will not bring it, but he wants to emphasize that it should nevertheless be watched for.  This is perhaps why GMk leaves out the second line of GTh 113, and mentions caution and watching so often: in v. 5, 9, 23, and especially 33, 35, 37.

c) This was transformed twice.  First it was transformed into a Q version.  In this version, the disciples are replaced by the Pharisees, and the statement that the kingdom is unseen is moved up to emphasize that there will not be signs of the coming kingdom.    This is the version more or less preserved in Lk 17:20-21.

The Q author, making his own use of GTh, then took logion 38 and probably also the second half of 59, and combined their parallel constructions into a single insertion, now found only in Lk 17:22:

And he said to the disciples, "The days are coming
when you will desire to see
one of the days of the Son of Man
and you will not see it."

Compare to:

38
59
There will be days
and then
when you will seek
try to see
me
The living one
and will not find me
and you will be unable to see

This was appended after the previous saying, replacing the original final line "people don't see it", as an expansion of that sentiment.  Marcion used this more or less as he found it in Q, though the "day" of the Son of Man is probably a Lukan modification of the original, which probably just spoke of the Son of Man directly.  We know this because Matthew does not speak of the day of the Son of Man, but rather of his presence.  (We'll get to Matthew's treatment in a minute.)

And, while the Q author was using GTh, he also took logion 3 to build his next sequence.  Compare the Matthean, Lukan, and Thomasine version:

So, if they say to you
And they will say to you
Jesus said, “If your leaders say to you
'Lo, he is in the wilderness'
'Lo, there!'
‘Look, the kingdom is in the sky,’
do not go out
*
Then the birds of the sky will precede you
if they say
Or
If they say to you
'Lo, he is in the inner rooms'
'Lo, here'
‘It is in the sea’
do not believe it
(*Do not go,) do not follow them
then the fish will precede you


Rather, the kingdom is within you, and it is outside you.

These can all be broken down to the same basic sequence, with minor differences in order:

they will say
he is in the wild
but he is not/do not go
if they say
he is elsewhere
he is not/do not follow
(he is inside/he is not inside)

The Q original would probably have taught, like GTh 3, that the kingdom was indeed within, consistent with GTh 113.  This was modified later by both Matthew and Marcion/Luke.

d) The second transformation was in canonical GMk, where some details were added: the Mount of Olives; "here it is/there" was changed to "here is the Christ/there he is"; and the rest of the Little Apocalypse was added, including the section from Mk 13:21-23.  (One piece of evidence for this is that the Little Apocalypse is totally absent from GJn, and yet we know that GJn shows Markan influences.)

e) Then, two combinations happened around the same time.  The first was made by Marcion, who used both the Q version and the canonical Markan version to write Lk 17 and Lk 21.  He used the Q version in Lk 17:20-21, and followed it with Lk 17:22-23 and Lk 17:22-23, as found in Q.  He duplicates the language of v. 20-21 in v. 22-23 to simplify the verses, because he's already said it all in v. 20-21.  This is just an example of fatigue.

He then later uses the first two lines of the Markan version in Lk 21:7, but abandons the rest of it because there's no need to repeat himself a third time.

This helps to show that much of the Little Apocalypse was not original to Secret Mark, but rather was authored by canonical Mark.  Marcion/Luke keeps the Q version of the kingdom saying in Lk 17 separate from the other version found in the apocalypse in Lk 21.  He does this because he has two versions in front of him: the Q version, with a kingdom saying but no apocalypse, and a canonical Markan version, with both a kingdom saying and an apocalypse.  Marcion/Luke uses the kingdom saying alone, like Q does, in Lk 17, then uses the first line of the Markan version when he writes Lk 21, but excises the rest out--because he's already said it all in Lk 17.

f) Matthew generally favors GMk, so he picks up the narrative at Mk 13:4 and when he notices that the Q source has an alternate version, he drops that version entirely, in favor of the Markan one.  The only remaining trace of it is in the link between FANHSETAI in Mt 24:30 and PARATHRHSEWS in Lk 17:20b.  Matthew says that when Christ comes, the signs will be visible, and Luke says they won't be.  This is consistent with Matthew's ethic, perpetually warning his readers to watch and be prepared for the coming of Christ. 

What Matthew did is replace the Q versions of Lk 17:20b and 17:22 with Mt 24:30.  What the Q versions said is unclear, but since GTh 113 says that the kingdom would not come "by waiting", the Q versions probably agreed with Marcion/Luke that it would not come with visible signs.  Matthew is the dissenter here.

Yet at the same time, Matthew teaches that while there will be signs of the advent of the kingdom, the kingdom itself is actually nowhere to be found on earth; it will come only when Christ returns.  Furthermore, he is adamant that ethical behavior remains a requirement for membership in the kingdom, so any reliance on an interior faith would be suspect and bogus for him.  Thus he dispenses with the whole "within you/without you" ethic of GTh, insisting that Christ is neither "outside" nor "inside".  To emphasize this ethic, he drops the Q original of Lk 17:21b, and revises the Q original of Lk 17:23, to teach that not only those who say Christ is "in the wilderness" (="sky/sea" of GTh 3) are wrong, but so are those who say Christ is "in the inner rooms" (= "within" of GTh 3).


So we see how Matthew and Marcion/Luke, again, used both Q and Mark for different purposes, resulting in what looks like unique use of GTh 3:3a and 113 by Marcion/Luke, but was really just unique use of Q by Marcion/Luke.


That nearly finishes this series on the use of GTh by the sources of the synoptic gospels, though there are a few corrections I need to my lists of logia found in each source.  It turns out that investigating these correction will show us yet another source prior to the canonical gospels. 

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