Customer Reviews

Formation of Q: Trajectories in Ancient Wisdom Collections (Studies In Antiquity & Christianity)

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Former member of the Jesus Seminar, John Kloppenborg was apparently the first to try setting up objective and critical criteria for isolating redactional material within Q. He has almost singlehandedly set the direction of Q studies for the last twenty years or so, at least in North America. He has also attempted to establish the earlier thesis of Robinson and Koester that Q originated as a collection of wisdom sayings

I think Kloppenborg's attempts at uncovering redactional strata has some things to commend it but it is far more shakey than he admits. It certainly does not provide the groundwork for books like Burton Mack's "Q: The Lost Gospel" or the far-reaching conclusions of the Jesus Seminar about the historical Jesus. Nor does Kloppenborg's claim that Q was at some point a merely collection of wisdom sayings commend itself to most scholars. Certainly there are sapiential elements within Q but there are other elements as well and one will be hard-pressed at labelling these "sapiential." The Beattitudes, for example, have a largely eschatological tone. Christopher Tuckett therefore rightly concludes that it is not very meaningful to categorize Q as a "sapiential" work. He also severely critiques the so-called "Cynic Jesus" hypothesis which is largely associated with Kloppenborg. I'd really recommend Tucket's "Q and the History of Early Christianity" by the way. He offers some very compelling critiques of Kloppenborg, as well as Theissen, Downing, Hoffman, Koester, Robinson, Goulder and many others. Of all the books out on Q Tuckett's is really the one to read. Kloppenborg's book is good if you want to keep up with the history of Q studies, especially in North America for the last thirty years or so. But if you're looking for an amazing and more up-to-date work of scholarship, read Tuckett.