03_Biblica_Foster_Layout 1 08/07/13 12:56 Pagina 374 03_B 374 PAUL FOSTER By “Christian Jews”, I mean Christian supporters who still main- tained their place within Jewish and social society (if indeed one can distinguish between the two!); by Jewish Christians, I mean those who had, whether by choice or outside pressure, made the move of setting up a “community” (at least in some sense) separate from their Jewish contemporaries, even though maintaining the highest level of continuity with their Jewish roots 27. Arnal’s description of the Q community aligns even more closely with that of Kloppenborg. Hence, scribalism, not itinerancy, is viewed as the correct model for describing a Galilean village-based move- ment. The social project of Q involves the wholesale rejection of hi- erarchies, especially that of Jerusalem-focused religious power structures 28. Arnal calls for a reconceptualization of the terms “Jewish Christianity” or “Christian Judaism”. He sees the Jewish features be- coming heightened with successive redactions of Q. Hence, Arnal views Q as the product of a Jesus-based movement within Judaism. This understanding of Q has enjoyed increased popularity over the last couple of decades, but it does not represent a uniform consensus. While Fleddermann’s position deviates from what is perhaps the prevailing view, it is helpful to appreciate the way the text of Q can be seen as reflecting a different social location. He states: “[t]he cultural matrix Q rose out of remains hotly disputed. Does Q reflect Cynicism, Judaism, Jewish Christianity, or Gentile Christianity”? Fleddermann rejects the first three categories, and instead views Q as being read in gentile Christian contexts. He notes that Q attacks Israel’s particularism, it promotes a universal approach to salvation, it supports a flexible approach to the Law, it singles out Gentiles as models of faith, views Israel as under judgment, and replaces temple and Israel as places of true worship with a theology of the kingdom of God. As a result, he concludes “[a]ll we can know about the author of Q we have to infer from the work. The work discloses a highly literate author, a native Greek-speaking Gentile Christian living somewhere in the Mediterranean world […]” 29. TUCKETT, Q and the History of Early Christianity, 435, n. 37. 27 W.E. ARNAL, Jesus and the Village Scribes. Galilean Conflicts and the 28 Setting of Q (Minneapolis, MN 2001) 202. H.T. FLEDDERMANN, Q: A Reconstruction and Commentary (Biblical 29 Tools and Studies 1; Leuven 2005) 161, 167. © Gregorian Biblical Press 2013 - Tutti i diritti riservati