(Lk vi, 24-26)
We have here the alternatives of supposing that Luke invented these woes, that he found them in some altogether different source and inserted them here in the midst of his Q material, or that they stood, with the beatitudes, in his recension of Q. Since the beatitudes themselves, without the woes, show such difference as to preclude Matthew’s and Luke’s having drawn them from an identical source, but since they seem, if anything, to have stood in Q, it seems natural to assign these woes of Luke’s, as we have assigned the beatitudes peculiar to Matthew, to the recension used by him. The sympathy shown in the Gospel of Luke for the poor has usually been referred to Luke himself. It may just as well have been a characteristic of one or more of his sources.
THE RECEPTION OF JOHN’S PREACHING
(Lk vii, 29-30)
These two verses are inserted in the midst of Jesus’ testimony to John the Baptist. They have the sound of a purely editorial insertion. On the other hand, if they were found elsewhere by Luke, his insertion of them in this place is accounted for by his desire to explain Jesus’ saying about John. A possible hint of a source is found in the presence of δικαιόω. This verb is found in three other passages that are peculiar to Luke and that are evidently not from QLk. If not from Luke himself, these verses are from some special source. But they are only what might be expected from Luke himself in the way of editorial comment.
THE SINNER IN SIMON’S HOUSE
(Lk vii, 36-50)
Tho this narrative has considerable resemblance to that in Mk xiv, 3-9, and Mt xxvi, 6-13, the different placing of the story, and the differences in the story itself, far outweighing the resemblances, seem to indicate a special source for it. There is no reason to attribute it, or any saying in it, to Q.
A WOULD-BE FOLLOWER OF JESUS