Dear Professor Vinzent, I would like to propose a simple hypothesis for the synoptic problem, and the key to the problem is your work with Marcion's Evangelion.
1-I would suggest that the transmission of information about Jesus post-resurrection began as, oral remembrances about his actions and teachings.
2-Within a generation, many of these remembrances were written down and distributed (as authoritative texts) through the communities of followers: what we have come to know as the Gospel of Thomas (Deconick's kernel), and an early (proto-) Gospel of Mark. I see the Gospel of Thomas is very Q-like when comparing its sayings to comparable verses in Luke and Matthew. I propose that the spread of these written texts were considered 'authoritative' since the concepts and wordings produced a high level of consistence in later texts.
3-The next generation of development saw the combination of the narrative proto-Mark with the sayings Gospel of Thomas (that became the proto-Evangelion), and a more fully developed narrative Gospel of Mark.
4.The next generation produced what we know as Marcion's Evangelion, and (proto-?)Matthew, which appears to be derived from a more developed Mark combined with the proto-Evangelion.
5.Additional layers, such as the birth stories and references to the Old Testament were added to produce the Gospels of Luke and Matthew as we now know them.
Thank you for entertaining my thoughts. Richard Reitz
Dear Professor Vinzent,
ReplyDeleteI would like to propose a simple hypothesis for the synoptic problem, and the key to the problem is your work with Marcion's Evangelion.
1-I would suggest that the transmission of information about Jesus post-resurrection began as, oral remembrances about his actions and teachings.
2-Within a generation, many of these remembrances were written down and distributed (as authoritative texts) through the communities of followers: what we have come to know as the Gospel of Thomas (Deconick's kernel), and an early (proto-) Gospel of Mark. I see the Gospel of Thomas is very Q-like when comparing its sayings to comparable verses in Luke and Matthew. I propose that the spread of these written texts were considered 'authoritative' since the concepts and wordings produced a high level of consistence in later texts.
3-The next generation of development saw the combination of the narrative proto-Mark with the sayings Gospel of Thomas (that became the proto-Evangelion), and a more fully developed narrative Gospel of Mark.
4.The next generation produced what we know as Marcion's Evangelion, and (proto-?)Matthew, which appears to be derived from a more developed Mark combined with the proto-Evangelion.
5.Additional layers, such as the birth stories and references to the Old Testament were added to produce the Gospels of Luke and Matthew as we now know them.
Thank you for entertaining my thoughts.
Richard Reitz