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?
“sons of the kingdomâ€, but nonetheless will be excluded. Fitzmyer
is correct in his observations about this tradition: “the relation of Gen-
tiles and Jews in the kingdom may reflect much more of the early
community’s preoccupation with it than Jesus’ own†64. Nonetheless,
the precise nature of those concerns and the contemporary socio-re-
ligious identity of the group viewing its own situation as paralleled
by events in the ministry and controversies of the historical Jesus
cannot be reconstructed with any degree of certainty.
As this brief survey shows, many of the concepts contained in
Q, such as “synagogueâ€, “lawâ€, “Gentiles†and “unbelieving Israelâ€,
often used in determining the social location of the group, have ul-
timately proved to be ambiguous. In fact, they can be fitted into ei-
ther a theory of a law-observant Jewish Christian group, or as
supporting the view that Q was compiled originally for an inclusive
group containing both ethnic Jews as well as Gentile believers.
IV. The Stratification of Q as a Clue to Social Location
Kloppenborg’s ground-breaking work on the literary formation
of Q led to the proposal that the document was compiled through a
process of three recensions or layers. According to his theory, the
base layer Q1 represented a collection of sapiential traditions. Next a
layer of traditions, Q2, dealing with the prophetic announcement of
judgment was added. This made up about one-third of the extent of
Q 65. The final layer, Q3, is understood by Kloppenborg not as a major
redactional re-shaping, but as “a matter of minor glossing†66. This
layer is proposed to comprise of only Q 4.1-13; 11.42c; and 16.17.
However, this final editorial gloss has been taken in one recent treat-
ment of the social location of Q as an important indication of the in-
creasingly Jewish religious allegiance of the group.
Picking up on comments made originally by Kloppenborg in re-
lation to Q3, Arnal suggests that the “final redaction of Q does not
J.A. FITZMYER, The Gospel According to Luke X-XXIV (AB 28A; New
64
York 1985) 1023.
The material in this layer included Q 3.7-9, 16-17; 7.1-10, 18-35; 11.14-
65
26, 28-33, 39-52; 12.39-59; and 17.23-35. KLOPPENBORG, The Formation of
Q, 166.
KLOPPENBORG, Excavating Q, 153.
66
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