Sources of Luke-Acts (Prof. Crowe)

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE
Relationship to Other Gospels
The arguments for Markan priority include the shared or der between Matthew and Luke in those passages that have a paral lel in Mark. The conclusion reached was that the order of events in Matthew and Luke seems to follow that of Mark, even though Mat thew and Luke deviate in other ways from Mark. The argument for Markan priority eventually led to the Two Source Hypothesis, which remains the dominant hypothesis today (see Figure 2). This theory states that Mark was the first Gospel written, and Matthew and Luke (independently) used both Mark and another sayings source of Jesus, known as “Q”. Basically, the Q material in the Gospels comprises those portions shared by Mat thew and Luke that are not included in Mark (approximately 230 verses). For these verses, it appears as though Matthew and Luke share a Greek source, since it would be unlikely for them inde pendently to render Aramaic accounts into such strikingly similar Greek formulations. Additionally, the order of this material in both Matthew and Luke is mostly the same, though they use the material in different contexts (Fitzmyer, Luke, 75–81). Although the debate continues concerning the precise nature of Q, including the interplay of oral and written elements (John S. Kloppenborg Verbin, Excavating Q: The History and Set ting of the Sayings Gospel, 59-60) it does appear that Matthew and Luke demonstrate enough shared language, which is developed in different ways, to posit this second source.