Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 14:48:06 -0600
From: Shane Matsumoto <matsumoto@mail.stlnet.com>
To: crosstalk@info.harpercollins.com
Subject: Thomas Q Project (my findings)

I just got back and realized I sent this privately to Steve, this was
supposed to be for everyone.
To: miser17@epix.net
From: matsumoto@mail.ccipost.net (Shane Matsumoto)
Subject: Re: Thomas Q project

Crosstalk fellows,

I am doing this over my lunch, so upon noticing how most people are already
done, I figure I had best just go with my impressions of my assigned parts
and admit it is not as thorough as some, but I will examine these more
closely this evening if needed.  With that said:  Here goes!

>There can be four possible conclusions for each example.
>1. This one is a spurious example as it's either not Q or not related
>to Thomas.
>2. Matthew's version is more like Thomas than Luke's
>3. Luke's is more like Thomas than Matthew's
>4. There are elements more like Thomas in both to a roughly
>equal degree... although even so one might be able to say Thomas
>is more like Mt or Lk than the contrary.
>
>This isn't going to be graded, so make some decision and get
>on with it. Some little rationale would be useful, but there should
>rarely be any reason to go into details.

>Matsumoto
>39) Q2 12:49?     Th 82[A]
I don't think these are parallels useful for our purposes (not a good start)
Vote: 1

>40) Q2 12:51-53   Th 16
I think Luke's version is kind of a middle ground between Matthew and
Thomas' version.
Vote: 3

>41) Q  12:54-56   Th 91[K]
This is a toughey!  Someone might double-check me here...
1st glance: Mt & Lu more similar to each other and Thomas isn't obviously
closer to either i.e. Mt and Lu have similar intro to the core saying that
all three share.
2nd glance: Lu & Th deal with both land and sky (Lu says "land" and "sky"
while Thomas says "heaven" and "earth") while Matthew only says "sky".  I
think it is more important that Lu and Th deal with what is in the sky and
what is on the land (Matthew says nothing about the land or earth) than to
emphasize that my English translations of Mt and Th employ the same word
for sky ("heaven") as opposed to Luke's "sky".  That makes me lean toward
Luke more parallel than Thomas than Matthew parallel to Thomas. (Hope that
was clear)
3rd glance: Mt and Th put the saying in the form of a statement: "...you do
not know how to examine the present moment" (Thomas 91)
Lu puts the rhetoric in question form (let's play jeopardy!): "...so why
don't you know how to interpret the present time?" (Lu 12:56)
This makes me lean back to the middle, as Mt is more parallel to Th in this
regard then Lu is.
Vote: If I had to pick one, I lean ever so slightly to Lu because Lu and
Thomas employ more similar language.  But the wus in me wants to vote 4
because Mt and Lu are very similar to each other and where they differ, the
truincated version of Th has similar characteristics to both differences in
the Mt&Lu differences.
For the stats I will vote 3, but would appreciate a second opinion as to
what would be thought of as the more important item to consider.

>42) Q1 13:18-19   Th 20
Luke is much more like Mt than Thomas of course (I guess that's why we have
a Q hypothesis :-)  ), but Lu is more like Thomas in that it is a simpler
saying than Mt.
Vote: 3

>43) Q1 13:20-21   Th 96
Mt and Lu are word-for word, Thomas' version is edited to say something
very different.
Vote: 4

>44) Q2 13:28      Th 4[A]
I focused on the "first will be last" part of the sayings exclusively (it
was my judgement that it was the only relevant parallel in the saying).
Once again, it is a close call because Th differs quite a bit more than the
other two, but this time I would say that the Matthian saying is only
similar to Thomas in that they are simpler than Lu.
Vote: 2

>45) Q2 14:16-24   Th 64
Long passage... I say Lu and Th have more exaggerated details in the
parable than the softened Mt. parable.
Vote: 3

>46) Q1 14:26      Th 55
The Luke version is very close to the version in Thomas.  Matthew adds more
to his saying.  Finally, a cut and dried judgement.
Vote: 3

>47) Q1 14:26      Th 101
This Thomas saying is pretty wacky.  Mt/Lu make similar points, but Thomas
makes it all some sort of paradox.  Thomas 55 is a much better parallel.
To pick one, again I would go with Luke's version.

Summary: Spurious: 1
Mt more like Th than Lu is to Th: 1
Lu   "    "  Th   "  Mt  "  " Th: 6
Elements in Thomas to an equal degree: 1

However, most of my judgements for Lu are debatable, I'm sure.

That was fun!  Let's do that again when I have a day off work!  :-)

Shane