Thursday, May 20, 2010

Q in the Top 7 Lost Bodies of Work (That Would Have Changed Everything)

Speaking of Q, my friend NT Wrong helpfully draws attention to the 7 Lost Bodies of Work (That Would Have Changed Everything), which features "The (Supposed) Lost Sayings of Jesus".  "The Q Document, if it exists, is probably the single most influential thing recorded, like, in the history of ever," the page claims.  It goes on to espouse a maximalist position on what Q may have contained, including "more specific writings from Jesus on, say, slavery, or homosexuality, or abortion, or women's rights. Or gun control".

In other words, it sounds much more interesting than the Critical Edition.

Until, of course, we remember that the reconstructed text of Q does have a bit to say about slavery, a whole story about a centurion who says to his slave, "'Do this,' and he does it" (Q 7.8), behaviour apparently commended by Jesus (Q 7.9).  Is it not also Q that commends the faithful and wise slave ("Blessed is that slave", Q 12.43) and condemns the unfaithful slave to being "cut in pieces" (Q 12.46)?

2 comments:

Matt Page said...

The link to NT Wrong seems to be, well, wrong. I only mention it because I didn't realise he was doing anything at the moment, and I'd be keen to read it.

Matt

Mark Goodacre said...

Thanks, Matt. The link is to a very brief comment at the bottom of that post.