CHAPTER VII

THE ORIGINAL ORDER OF Q

The following tables are intended to throw light upon the probable original order of Q. They will also facilitate comparison of the Q material in the two tables of contents given on pp. 222-25. The section numbers at the left are those in the tables for Matthew and Luke respectively on those pages. Table VII gives the sections in the order in which they come in Matthew, with the numbers of the corresponding sections as they occur in Luke; Table VIII, the sections as they come in Luke, with numbers of corresponding sections in Matthew. Unduplicated sections are not listed.

Since Matthew shows everywhere a tendency to group his material into discourses, it is a priori probable that the original order of the Q material is to be sought in Luke and not in Matthew. Given this tendency to combine, reasons are obvious for Matthew’s combining, in his Sermon on the Mount, much matter that Luke has scattered thru his Gospel. But if the Q material originally stood in such continuous discourses, no motive can be assigned for Luke’s breaking up these discourses and scattering their material thru so many chapters. The assumption that Matthew has combined, in his Sermon on the Mount, material which originally was separated as it still is in Luke, is corroborated by an analysis of that Sermon, which shows it to be anything but a unity. Much of the material which Matthew has combined into this Sermon has no duplicate in Luke. There is no means of telling where in Matthew’s Q this unduplicated material stood. But the fact that the duplicated matter has been brot forward by Matthew from later chapters in Luke would give the presumption that such of the unduplicated material as has no necessary unity where it stands also stood in QMt, not at the beginning where it now is, but later; and this is also what we should expect.

TABLE VII

MtLk
Sec.Sec.
1 = 1
2 = 2
3 = 3
4 = 4
7 = 5
11 = 6
12 = 73
13 = 20
14 = 75
17 = 61
20 = 76
22 = 8
23 = 8
26 = 39
27 = 78
29 = 53
30 = 46
31 = 73
32 = 51
33 = 9
34 = 12
36 = 40
37 = 7
36 = 64
40 = 13
41 = 15
42 = 16
44 = 17
45 = 66
46 = 25
47 = 27
48 = 23
50 = 23
52 = 29
53 = 30
54 = 24
54 = 31
55 = 32
55 = 28
56 = 50
57 = 11
58 = 48
58 = 21
59 = 59
60 = 70
60 = 84
61 = 34
62 = 18
63 = 19
63 = 74
64 = 33
65 = 36
68 = 41
68 = 49
69 = 14
70 = 43
71 = 45
72 = 44
73 = 42
74 = 22
75 = 37
76 = 62
77 = 63
82 = 10
83 = 79
84 = 77
86 = 89
86 = 38
91 = 47
92 = 47
93 = 67
94 = 81
95 = 86
96 = 82
97 = 92
98 = 55
99 = 56

TABLE VIII

LkMt
Sec.Sec.
1 = 1
2 = 2
3 = 3
4 = 4
5 = 7
6 = 11
7a = 37
8 = 22
8 = 23
9 = 33
10 = 82
11 = 57
12 = 34
13 = 40
14 = 69
15 = 41
16 = 42
17 = 44
18 = 62
19 = 63
20 = 13
21 = 58
22 = 74
23 = 48
24 = 54
25 = 46
27 = 47
28 = 55
29 = 52
30 = 53
31 = 54
32 = 55
33 = 64
34 = 61
36 = 65
37 = 75
38 = 86
39 = 26
40 = 36
41 = 68
42 = 73
43 = 70
44 = 72
45 = 71
46 = 30
47 = 91
47 = 92
48 = 58
49 = 68
50 = 56
51 = 32
53 = 29
55 = 98
56 = 99
59 = 59
61 = 17
62 = 76
63 = 77
64 = 38
66 = 45
67 = 93
70 = 60
73 = 12
73a = 31
74 = 63
75 = 14
76 = 20
77 = 84
78 = 27
79 = 82
81 = 94
82 = 96
84 = 60
85 = 17
86 = 15
89 = 86

Taking the hint that Luke’s order probably represents the original order of the Q material, we find this supposition confirmed by the present arrangement. In spite of Matthew’s transpositions, the sections in Luke and Matthew, as grouped in Table IX, still stand in the same relative order.

TABLE IX