Adding GTh, pt. 3

To recap, we found that there are two large blocks of GTh material found in more than one gospel: one block found in all three synoptics, and another found in Q material.  This implies that each block was added to a source document, which was then used by other gospels.  In the two-source hypothesis, these two sources would have been GMk and Q; in a Farrar-Goulder hypothesis, these two sources would have been GMk and GMt.  In the Hyper-Synoptic Hypothesis, these two sources would have been either Secret Mark or GMk (we'll decide later), and GPetQ.



We found almost no material shared by either the GMt-GMk pair, or by the GMk-GLk pair.  This suggests that GMt and GLk derive (one way or another) from the same sources, and that their use of those sources was almost equally comprehensive.  In the case of Q this is a little trivial, since Q is more or less just material found in both GMt-GLk, but in the case of GMk it's instructive; it implies that the GTh material was written into GMk all at the same time, and that the parts of GMk where it was included remained fairly stable.

We did find three sayings shared only by GMt-GMk, but one is present in a modified form in GLk, and there are reasons why Luke (or Marcion) might have left the other two out.  Furthermore, they may have connections to some stories in Acts.  So these sayings are likely just sayings that Matthew used, but Luke (or Marcion) ignored.  Again, there are only three of them, so their absence from GLk is easily attributable to idiosyncratic editing by Luke (or Marcion).

And there are no sayings shared only by GMk-GLk, implying that the Matthean tradition does not derive from the Lukan tradition.


I did want to return to logion 106 briefly ("When you say "mountain, move from here...").  This is the one mentioned above that Miller et al say is included only in GMt-GMk, though they mention GLk has a related saying ("If you say to this mulberry tree...").  But Lk 17:5-6 is clearly the same saying--it falls in a parallel location as in GMt.  The changes include "mountain" to "mulberry tree" (actually "sycamime tree") and rewriting the location to "the sea".  What's more...the Bezae reading (and the Cureton Syriac) includes the mountain (!), in addition to the tree.

This saying is actually doubled in GMt, in Mt 21:21 and there the mountain goes to the sea, like the tree in GLk.  In fact the parallel with GMk is there, in Mt 21:21, where it parallels Mk 11:23--and Mark also sends the mountain to the sea.  (And...this occurs just after an incident with a tree--the fig tree of Mt 21:19-20/Mk 11:20-21, that is.)  So what is going on here? 

It would seem that there was originally a Markan saying, Mk 11:23, that sent a mountain to the sea, probably right after the fig tree withered.  But there was also apparently a related Q saying.  My guess is that either the Q-author found this saying already in GMk, and copied it, or he just happened to use the same logion from GTh without realizing it.  The Q version leaves out the sea, and is a little more faithful to GTh, so perhaps the latter scenario is more likely.  The Lukan author (remember, I think this was originally Marcion) found both versions, in Q and in GMk, and originally conflated them in full, though he changed the Markan mountain to a tree--perhaps inspired by the fig tree (GLk leaves out the fig tree incident, having relocated it to Lk 13 and rewritten it).  Matthew--who, again, tends to be more inclusive and literal--found both as well, but used them both, in their respective locations.  And then...Luke (the editor of Marcion) struck out the bit about the mountain, keeping only the tree.

So we're right to include logion 106 in the first batch of GTh sayings that found its way into GMk.  It's just that it might also have been in the batch that found its way separately into Q.  Again, we'll leave this aside for now, though it's worth further study.