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23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Informed, Impressively Scholarly Yet Clear-Sighted and Easy To Read!, October 14, 2008
This review is from: Q, the Earliest Gospel: An Introduction to the Original Stories and Sayings of Jesus (Paperback)
The author of this book, Professor John S. Kloppenborg, was the co-editor of both "The Critical Edition of Q" and "The Sayings Gospel Q in Greek and English." He is therefore in a unique position not only to introduce this initial collection of sayings and stories of Jesus, but to explain both how this reconstruction was formulated, and its importance to an understanding of the philosophy and character of early Christianity. In the course of this discussion, Professor Kloppenborg is also of course concerned to demonstrate how both Matthew and Luke adapted Document Q to suit their own purposes. For example, the beatitudes which Matthew groups in what we term his "chapter five", using the well-known literary device we call "The Sermon on the Mount", were probably originally gathered in Document Q in various places. From Q, they can be rendered as follows: "Blessed are you poor, for God's reign is for you. Blessed are you who hunger, for you will eat your fill. Blessed are you who mourn, for you will be consoled. Blessed are you when they insult and persecute you, and say every kind of evil against you because of the Son of Man. Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. Many prophets and kings longed to see what you see, but never saw it, and to hear what you hear, but never heard it. [Blessed are the humble]. Everyone exalting himself will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Blessed are those who hear the word of God and obey it. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord." Notice that this list omits the verse promising "the humble and lowly" that they will "inherit the earth", which, in my opinion, can certainly be regarded as a gloss. All told, this introduction to Q is fascinating, informative and superbly researched. I have only two extremely minor reservations. I was surprised that, despite the lengthy discussions and comparisons with the Gospel of Thomas in the text, that Marvin Meyer's book was not listed in "Further Reading". And I was a little amazed the author asserts that the meaning of the very peculiar Greek word "epiousios" is not known. Jerome tells us that it means "super-substantial." My research indicates that the word was a slang term referring to the super-generous or overly generous daily ration of food that an overseer or foreman might receive. See my book, More Bible Wisdom for Modern Times: Selections from the Early New Testament
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Q review, March 17, 2011
This review is from: Q, the Earliest Gospel: An Introduction to the Original Stories and Sayings of Jesus (Paperback)
Great book, a lot of information. Make sure you have the time to really read this and not try to skim throught it. It's a great study source to get the whole picutre. Harder to verfiy info though.
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11 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Too short, February 8, 2010
This review is from: Q, the Earliest Gospel: An Introduction to the Original Stories and Sayings of Jesus (Paperback)
Professor Kloppenborg states that the purpose of this book is "an introduction to the Sayings Gospel Q, treating four basic questions: Why should we think there was a Q? What did Q look like? What difference does Q make? And what happened to Q?" Fair enough. Let's examine the result.
Why should we think there was a Q? is the first chapter and the longest (40 pages). Unfortunately, 40 pages is not sufficient to make a good case for Q much less to give fair time to the alternate theories about why Matthew and Luke differ from Mark in certain ways. Indeed, there is a lack of substantial charts and diagrams to fully flush out the points that Kloppenborg makes, and so he relies on the reader having an expert knowledge of the 4 gospels. Time and time again he'll say something like - "Take, for example, John the Baptist's address to the crowds (Matt. 3:7-10 \\ Luke 3:7-9). The agreement between Matthew and Luke is remarkable..." I, for one, would like to see the passages themselves and make my own judgement as to whether or not the agreement is remarkable. In the entire first chapter, he only provides 3 illustrations of what he is talking about. The rest of the time the reader will be forced to go to the gospels and look at it themselves. Now, in an advanced book this would be acceptable, but in a book that purports to be an introduction, more use should have been made of these types of comparison charts.
In addition, Kloppenborg deals with the gospels as if they were written at a single moment in time. In truth, the gospels were likely composed over centuries, with pieces being added and subtracted all the time. This dynamic writing needs to be addrsssed when we compare the gospels, but Kloppenborg tends to treat them as if they were written once.
With regard to "What did Q look like", Kloppenborg's brief chapter (21 pages) didn't give me a clear picture of Q. He does have a chart (page 43) that gives us the supposed Q text, but it consists of items like "John's preaching (3:7b-9, 16b-17)" which isn't really helpful at all. There is an appendix called "The Sayings Gospel Q in English" but that really wasn't so helpful either. If I seem hard to please, it's because I was looking for a reproduction of what Kloppenborg thought the Q gospel looked like. That's what he said he was going to address. Instead the chapter tells us what the supposed Q gospel contained, but we are no closer to knowing what it looked like.
Kloppenborg clearly knows his material, and I can't help but think that in a longer introductory book he could have achieved his goals. In the current book he falls short.
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