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Q Projekt
Documenta Q
Reconstructions of Q Through Two Centuries of Gospel
Research
Excerpted, Sorted and Evaluated
General Editors: Paul Hoffmann, John S. Kloppenborg,
Joseph Verheyden and Christoph Heil
Founder of the International Q Project and former
General Editor: James M. Robinson
Managing Editors: Robert A. Derrenbacker, Jr., Gertraud
Harb, Steven R. Johnson and Markus Tiwald
Former Managing Editors: Stanley D. Anderson, Sterling
G. Bjorndahl, Shawn Carruth, Thomas Hieke and Milton C. Moreland
Documenta Q is the Database of the International Q Project
presupposed in its reconstruction of. the Sayings Gospel Q. It consists of
scholarly literature from two centuries, excerpted, sorted and evaluated, and
includes practically all the efforts thus far to establish the precise Greek
wording of Q, that is, the approximately 235 verses (or parts of verses) in the
canonical Gospels of Matthew and Luke that share enough in wording and sequence
to indicate a shared written Greek source other than Mark.
Each saying has been subdivided into aseries of variation units,
modelled after those of textual criticism, where Matthew or Luke diverge in the
wording or sequence of Q. Scholarly assessments of these divergences are
excerpted in English, German or French (as well as published translations), and
these data are sorted into four lists, each in chronological order covering the
whole period of Q scholarship down to the present: arguments supporting the
view that Luke did (1) or did not (2) preserve the original reading for that
variation unit, followed by those holding that Matthew did (3) or did not (4)
preserve the Q reading. Each variation unit is furnished by evaluations: first
by the scholar who initially compiled, then by one or more respondents, then by
the International Q Project at one of its annual meetings, or by a
sub-committee at supplemental meetings. Finally the entire text of Q has been
reviewed by the General Editors of the editio maior of Q itself.
The need for a critical tool for the reconstruction of Q is obvious once
it is recognized that the pertinent literature is both vast, and widely
scattered in commentary, monograph, Festschrift and periodical
literature, in all of the modern research languages. In effect, it is beyond
access even for the most conscientious study. The inevitable result has been
that scholars refer to a parallel in Matthew and Luke „behind“ which lies a Q
saying whose wording is not even attempted, or, at best, hypothesized, often on
the basis of an arbitrary fraction of scholarly opinion.
The explosion of literature in the field, especially in recent years,
proposing reconstructions of the Q wording of individual sayings, makes it
apparent that the academic community needs a systematic ordering of relevant
opinion. Documenta Q is this tool, a resource made available here to the
scholarly public as a by-product of producing the critical text of Q itself. By
presenting all arguments bearing on the reconstruction of Q for the past 160
years in a consistent and standardized format, Documenta Q permits
easier access to, and a much more thorough grasp of, the entire context of
Q-scholarship than most individual study would allow. It is a Q library in
nuce.
As research moves forward, the database and evaluations will be updated
periodically in machine readable form, so that a future generation can have
comparable access that for them too is up to date.
Documenta Q is thus a resource provided to the scholarly
community to facilitate its work in this field. Q has seemed all too difficult
to study in the absence of manuscript evidence from which a critical text can
be established. It is hoped that this Database will compensate in part for this
inherent deficiency in Q studies, and thus provide a solid basis and practical
stimulus for ongoing studies of the Sayings Gospel Q.