reexAMINING Q2: SoN oF God CHrISToLoGy 73 serves to ground the ensuing instruction in the Q group’s reality at the time of the sermon’s composition in a context of persecution. The second section employs the Imitatio Dei principle to appeal to a non- violent response in these difficult circumstances. The fact that this discussion was necessary suggests that some of the group’s members may have struggled to come up with an adequate response to their per- secution. Beginning in 6,37 the subject matter shifts to a different type of a challenge: the accusation speech and its associated parable address a specific conflict among the group’s members. Finally, the sermon’s closing section summarizes the apparent group’s collective failure to follow the example of Jesus by means of a general accusa- tion (6,46) and a judgment parable (6,47-49). It is well-known that, following Kloppenborg’s allocation of 6,20b-49 to Q1, the sermon became an important part of the most recent quest for the historical Jesus. The primary consequence of this development for our discussion was the considerable suppression of the sermon’s Christology in those strands of contemporary New Testa- ment scholarship which interpreted Kloppenborg’s Q1 stratum and its image of the historical Jesus as sapiential. Specifically, Q 6,22-23 was struck from the sermon as presumably a Q2 redactional interpolation, and the Christological title ku,rie in 6,46 was interpreted to mean “master” as opposed to “Lord” 31. I will address those matters first, showing that they may not have taken all of the existing evidence into full account. Following that, I will highlight the Christological con- nections between 6,20b-49 and the Q2 stratum. I begin with 6,22-23. The problem posed by its existence to the notion of a strictly sapiential Q1 layer is obvious: the fourth beatitude clearly identifies Jesus with the apocalyptic o` ui`o.j tou/ avnqrw,pou: (Q 6,22) Blessed are you when they insult and persecute you, and say every kind of evil against you e[neken tou/ ui`ou/ avnqrw,pou. (Q 6,23) Be glad and exult, for vast is your reward in heaven. For this is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you 32. eventually, the entire beatitude Q 6,22-23 became assigned by Kloppenborg and a number of others to Q’s redaction 33. But the argu- 31 See n. 7 above. 32 roBINSoN – HoFFMANN – KLoppeNBorG, Critical Edition of Q, 50-51. 33 d.r. CATCHpoLe, The Quest for Q (edinburgh 1993) 91; JACoBSoN, First Gospel, 99-101, 108; KLoppeNBorG VerBIN, Excavating Q, 202; C.M. TUCKeTT, Q and the History of Early Christianity. Studies on Q (edinburgh 1996) 179.