03_Biblica_Foster_Layout 1 08/07/13 12:56 Pagina 369 369 IS Q A “JEWISH CHRISTIAN” DOCUMENT? logia, the Q theory was developed primarily as an explanation of the interrelationships between the synoptic gospels. The theory gained widespread acceptance through the work of H.J. Holtzmann who adopted the siglum Λ to denote the source 3. The appearance in 1924 of B.H. Streeter’s landmark volume The Four Gospels had both an immediate and lasting impact on the study of the synoptic gospels in general, and upon theories about Q in par- ticular. The discussion went beyond understanding Q simply as an entity necessary to solve the synoptic problem. Instead, Streeter sought to locate Q within the landscape of the early Jesus movement. Streeter considered it highly likely that many of the sayings of Jesus originally were preserved in Aramaic in Jerusalem 4. However, ac- cording to Streeter, the advent of other communities of believers in Jesus (both Greek and Aramaic speaking) resulted in the wider cir- culation of such traditions. In an earlier published work Streeter en- tertained the possibility that Q originated in Palestine with the apostle Matthew as its author 5. However, by the time of the appearance of The Four Gospels Streeter advocated Antioch as the “possible place for the origin of Q” 6. He maintained, nevertheless, that both positions were compatible. The “Q” of Antioch was the Greek source common to both Matthew and Luke, whereas the “Q” of Palestine was an Ara- maic work written by the apostle Matthew, which when translated became at least the basis of the Greek Q of Antioch 7. In this discussion the siglum Q will refer to the common Greek source that is used independently by the authors of Matthew and Luke. It is apparent that for Streeter this document was pro-Gentile, it orig- inated and circulated among communities without adherence to law observance, and in fact its ideology sought to undermine the outlook H.J. HOLTZMANN, Die synoptischen Evangelien: Ihr Ursprung und ge- 3 schichtlicher Charakter (Leipzig 1863). B.H. STREETER, The Four Gospels: A Study in Origins (London 1924) 4 230. B.H. STREETER, ‘The Literary Evolution of the Gospels’, Oxford Studies 5 in the Synoptic Problem (ed. W. SANDAY) (Oxford 1911) 209-227. STREETER, The Four Gospels, 232. 6 Three decades after Streeter’s proposal, the idea of the “double origin” 7 of Q was still exerting influence on discussions of synoptic origins. See F.C. GRANT, The Gospels. Their Origin and Their Growth (London 1957). © Gregorian Biblical Press 2013 - Tutti i diritti riservati