This is Week Twenty Nine of Giford's Bible Study Programme.

If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

- Luke 14:26

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

- Matt 10:37

Length: 4/5

Controversy: 1/5

Back in Week Eleven, I introduced the Synoptic Problem. Back then, I came to the conclusion that Matthew and Luke had copied (and altered) the Gospel of Mark, and there seemed to be good evidence for that.

So now I would like to introduce one of the main problems with this idea. What are we to do when Matthew and Luke agree with each other, but Mark differs from both? In the above example, although the wording is not particularly close, the meaning is clearly similar, and yet Mark does not have Jesus say anything comparable. There are other examples also:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.

- Matt 5:3-12

Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied.

Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh.

Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of man!

Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.

- Luke 6:20-23

Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them

- Matt 7:12

And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise

- Luke 6:31

The most widely accepted solution to this problem is that there was a second source (other than Mark) that both Matthew and Luke had access to. This document - totally hypothetical - is referred to as 'Q'. There are arguments both for and against the existence of Q, and the matter is not settled, but most scholars accept its (former) existence. Evidence in its favour includes the fact that Q verses appear in different places in Matthew to Luke, indicating that they were inserted into Mark at different places by different editors. Evidence against it formerly centred around its form - it consisted only of sayings of Jesus, with no mention of Jesus' actions (including his Resurrection). This was not a style known from first Century Palestine, and it seemed implausible that early Christians could have written about Jesus without mentioning the Resurrection. The discovery of the Gospel of Thomas (a sayings Gospel from first Century Palestine that does not mention Jesus' Resurrection) undermined that objection.

It is interesting to note that the Beatitudes and the Golden Rule - Jesus' most famous sayings and Jesus' most famous teaching - are absent from Mark, the earliest of the Gospels. And neither Mark nor Q mentions Jesus' birth or resurrection.