03_Biblica_Foster_Layout 1 08/07/13 12:56 Pagina 373 373 IS Q A “JEWISH CHRISTIAN” DOCUMENT? with urban centres are called into question. He concurs that urban im- agery is present, but that it is used negatively. Consequently, Klop- penborg acknowledges the proximity of the Q community to urban settings, but the antipathy that Q expresses towards these centres is seen as being indicative of distance from such urban communities 25. Drawing these considerations together, he suggests: There is little direct reflection of the persons Q addresses beyond the likelihood that they represent no higher a social level than the scribes that framed Q. Perhaps the best that can be said is that the Q people included some of the petit bourgeois of Galilean towns and, possibly, marginalized persons from some of the cities 26. Thus Q is associated with the geographically small area of Lower Galilee, with community members being based in small rural towns and villages rather than larger urban centres such as Sepphoris. While seeing embedded in Q a critique of the over-centralization of reli- gious authority in Jerusalem, Kloppenborg suggests that Q nowhere challenges traditional markers of Jewish identity, and that it is likely that the Q people, as other Galileans, took for granted the principal distinguishing marks of Israelite identity — circumcision, some form of Sabbath observance, and probably certain dietary observances. Thus, Kloppenborg sees the Q community as understanding itself as a Jewish movement, which shared many of the critiques of Jerusalem- based religion in common with the wider Galilean populace. Thus even to label this group as “Jewish Christian” may represent too great a distinction in comparison with mainstream Judaism. This assessment is in part shared by both Tuckett and Arnal, al- though they articulate their arguments differently. Tuckett labels members of the community as “Q Christians”, although he de- scribes such people as “Christian Jews” rather than “Jewish Chris- tians”. He explains his choice of terminology as follows: Isolation is seen as a key hallmark of the social location of the Q group by 25 Jacobson. Whether this translates to geographical isolation or is only social iso- lation is more difficult to determine. See the summary statements in A.D. JA- COBSON, The First Gospel. An Introduction to Q (Sonoma, CA 1992) 262-263. KLOPPENBORG, Excavating Q, 211. 26 © Gregorian Biblical Press 2013 - Tutti i diritti riservati