Re: OT More pens (was Re: Phoneme winnowing continues)

Joe scripsit:

> > Matthew and Luke both draw on Mark as a principal source; they also have
> > common elements, presumably drawn from a lost source (conventionally named
> > "Q"), and unique elements.  John is independent, but is also much later
> > than the others.
>
> Um, I don't suppose the common elements could reflect the historical
> accuracy of the gospels?
Naah, it's specific words, phrases, ordering of elements, etc. etc.
That's why the first three Gospels are called "synoptic": they have a
single viewpoint based on the common source, which is very close to Mark
as we have it today.  Indeed, about 90% of the verses in Mark
are also in Matthew, verbatim or nearly so.  Some of the differences represent
corrections about Jewish customs (Mark is clearly writing for a Gentile
audience, as he regularly explains Judaism and sometimes gets it wrong).

> And are you sure it's not that Luke and Mark both
> draw on Matthew as a source?  After all, Matthew is the one who was actually
> purported to be there.  Luke and Mark were later.
The association of what we call the Gospel of Matthew with Matthew the
Apostle is extremely shaky.  We hear one report that "Matthew wrote the
sayings of Jesus in the Hebrew [probably Aramaic] language, and everyone
interpreted them as best he could."  There is no reason to think that the
Greek text we now have has any connection with this, whatever it was.
Here's a page on the subject by a confessing Christian:
http://www.bede.org.uk/seekers3b.html

Tradition says that Mark was a disciple of Peter, and there is nothing
against this.  There may be a single reference to himself in Mark's
gospel, anonymously:

014:051 And there followed him [Jesus] a certain young man, having a linen
        cloth cast about his naked body; and the young men laid hold
        on him:

014:052 And he left the linen cloth, and fled from them naked.

We hear nothing of this "certain young man" either before or after, and
the mention of him adds nothing to the story as a story.  It is thought, then,
that Mark inserted this element into his Gospel because it was his sole
personal contact with the story.

--
John Cowan   <jcowan@...>   http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
"One time I called in to the central system and started working on a big
thick 'sed' and 'awk' heavy duty data bashing script.  One of the geologists
came by, looked over my shoulder and said 'Oh, that happens to me too.
Try hanging up and phoning in again.'"  --Beverly Erlebacher

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