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The Sayings Gospel Q and the Quest of the Historical Jesus: A Response to John S. Kloppenborg1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

Helmut Koester
Helmut Koester
Affiliation:
Harvard Divinity School
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Extract

Is it possible to work back from Matthew and Luke to the final redaction of Q, from there to the earliest composition of Q, and thus ultimately to the historical Jesus? John Kloppenborg's article skillfully presents the difficulties and perils of such a procedure. I shall comment only on the second part of his paper; there is little to dispute with respect to the first part, which is an illuminating review of the role of Q (and other sources) in the search for the historical Jesus during the last two centuries. At the end, I shall offer some suggestions that may help to solve the conundrum of the historical Jesus.

Type
Research Articles
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 89 , Issue 4 , October 1996 , pp. 345 - 349
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1996

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References

1 This response was read at the annual New England regional meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, at Harvard Divinity School, 29 March 1996.

2 Kloppenborg, John S., “The Sayings Gospel Q and the Quest of the Historical Jesus,” HTR 89 (1996) 322.Google Scholar

3 For example, Crossan, John Dominic, The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Peasant (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1991)Google Scholar ; idem, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1994) ; and Mack, Burton L., “Lord of the Logia: Savior or Sage,” in Goehring, James E., Hedrick, Charles W., and Sanders, Jack T., eds., Gospel Origins & Christian Beginnings: In Honor ofJames M. Robinson (Sonoma, CA: Polebridge, 1989) 3–18Google Scholar ; idem, The Lost Gospel: The Book of Q and Christian Origins (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1993); see also idem, A Myth of Innocence: Mark and Christian Origins (Philadelphia: Fortress: 1988).

4 , Kloppenborg, “The Sayings Gospel Q,” 336.Google Scholar

5 Ibid., 337.

6 Ibid.

7 Robinson, James M., “The Q Trajectory: Between John and Matthew via Jesus,” in Pearson, Birger A., ed., The Future of Early Christianity: Essays in Honor of Helmut Koester (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991) 178–89.Google Scholar

8 On this question, see my article , “Q and Its Relatives,” in , Goehring, , Hedrick, and , Sanders, Gospel Origins & Christian Beginnings, 49–63Google Scholar ; also see my article, “Eschatology, the Sayings of Q and Their Image of Jesus,” forthcoming in the Festschrift for Tjietze Baarda.

9 , Kloppenborg, “The Sayings Gospel Q,” 332-34.Google Scholar

10 Markus 13 und die Apokalyptik (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1984).Google Scholar

11 See Georgi's, Dieter critique in his “Rudolf Bultmann's Theology of the New Testament Revisited,” in Hobbs, Edward C., ed., Bultmann, Retrospect, and Prospect: The Centenary Symposium at Wellesley (HTS 35; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985).Google Scholar Georgi's arguments are char acterized in Kloppenborg's, John article above (“The Sayings Gospel Q,” 340)Google Scholar.

12 Mendels, Doron, “Hellenistic Utopia and the Essenes,” HTR 72 (1979) 207–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13 Georgi, Dieter, “Who is the True Prophet?” in MacRae, George W., et al., eds., Christians among Jews and Gentiles: Essays in Honor of Krister Stendahl (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986) 100–26.Google Scholar

14 Herder, Johann Gottfried, Werke, vol. 19: Christliche Schriften (ed. Suphan, Bernard; Berlin: Weidraann, 1880).Google Scholar

15 Did. 9.2; 1 Cor 11:24-26; see also 1 Cor 10:17.