Paul Foster, «Is Q a 'Jewish Christian' Document?», Vol. 94 (2013) 368-394
Recent research has generated different hypotheses concerning the social location of Q. This discussion commences with an examination of scholarship on the phenomenon of 'Jewish Christianity' and theories concerning the social location of Q. Next, meta-level questions are addressed, concerning how social location is determined from a text. The discussion then considers four areas mentioned in Q that might be of potential significance for determining social location. These are references to synagogues, the law, Gentiles, and unbelieving Israel. In conclusion, the inclusive perspectives may suggest that the document had a more positive attitude toward Gentiles than is often stated.
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Is Q a “Jewish Christian†Document?
In a number of recent studies, the Q source has been seen as re-
flecting a Jewish Christian outlook, and emerging from an environ-
ment where Jewish boundary-marking practices were upheld. The
recent study of William Arnal presents a strong case for describing
Q as both a Jewish Christian text and the product of a Jewish Chris-
tian community, at least as reflected in the final form of the Q doc-
ument 1. By using Arnal as a major interlocutor, but not the only
dialogue partner, this discussion examines the claim that Q is best
understood as a Jewish Christian document. Specifically, it seeks
to address certain meta-level questions concerning how social lo-
cation is determined, what textual indicators might constitute evi-
dence for the textual location of a putative community behind a
text, but then in relation to the reconstructed text of Q, to enquire
whether sufficient evidence emerges from the Q document that al-
lows for its classification as a Jewish Christian text.
I. The History of Understanding
the Social Location of the Q Community
When the Q hypothesis was first formulated, its purpose was to
account for the origin of the literary relationships that existed be-
tween the three synoptic gospels. As early as 1838 C.H. Weisse pos-
tulated that Matthew and Luke used a second common source,
besides the gospel of Mark 2. Although Weisse called this source the
λόγια, seeing it as related to Papias’ statement about the Matthean
Following the hypothesis of stratified composition, Arnal is more com-
1
fortable when describing what he sees as the earliest recoverable stage, Q1,
as reflecting a ‘Jewish’ rather than a ‘Jewish Christian’ community. W.E.
ARNAL, ‘The Q Document’, Jewish Christianity Reconsidered. Rethinking
Ancient Groups and Texts (ed. M. JACKSON-MCCABE) (Minneapolis, MN
2007) 119-154.
C.H. WEISSE, Die evangelische Geschichte kritisch und philosophisch
2
bearbeitet, 2 vols. (Leipzig 1838) esp. vol. 1, 34-38.
BIBLICA 94.3 (2013) 368-394
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