Chapter 62 of 404

Are Wise Sayings Incompatible with Everything Else?

Mack uses the form of “Q” as a sayings source to argue for a “Q community” that did not know accounts of Jesus’ deeds. This proposal rests on at least four questionable premises: First, it assumes that we can reconstruct entire “communities” from documents (even documents just seven pages long) that use these documents, a premise that many scholars reasonably find problematic.¹³¹

Second, it assumes that when a community employs a brief document that omits mention of a particular belief, we can safely argue from that silence that the community did not accept (or know of) that belief. Yet any number of comparisons would demonstrate the logical falsehood of this assumption. (I could even use the premise to argue that different books I have written, some of which do not mention issues central to the other books, were produced by different “communities.”)¹³²

Third, it assumes that Q was exclusively a sayings-gospel.¹³³ This premise, not unique to Mack, is more plausible than any of the other premises involved in this case, but may be somewhat problematic in at least a few passages.¹³⁴ Fourth and more problematic, it offers a dramatic leap of logic on the basis of this third premise. It assumes that if “Q” (which it further assumes as the earliest source) was a sayings source, then Jesus must have been remembered originally for his teachings rather than his deeds.¹³⁵ The fourth premise does not follow from the third, even were the third true.

I will return to the other premises later, but let us start with the third, least objectionable, premise. Was Q a purely sayings gospel, completely lacking narrative? Many scholars argue that Q consisted mostly of sayings, yet concede that it included some narrative (certainly one need not assume that it proved hostile to narrative).¹³⁶ To argue that Q was exclusively a sayings-gospel, Mack eventually must inform the reader that he distinguishes layers within Q. Mack’s “Q” is not simply shorthand for the common material shared by Matthew and Luke, the way many scholars use it. Rather, he refers to what he considers the earliest “layer” of “Q.”

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