Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 20:16:09 -0400
From: Stevan Davies <miser17@epix.net>
To: crosstalk@info.harpercollins.com
Subject: Re: Thomas Q project (Cedor/Davies)]

David Cedor:
> Granted that the similarities are great either way, and I'll
> concede your vote for Matthew here.  However, though the wording
> between Lk/Matt and Thomas is very similar, again, the subject
> seems to be entirely different.  As noted above, in Lk/Matt Jesus
> is talking about JB, but in Thomas he appears to be talking about
> himself. What do you make of that? Isn't it significant that the
> wording is so close, but the meanings so different?  This passage
> is truly in a class all by itself, is it not?
> 
> David Cedor

Yeah, it's sure different in the contexts its put into. This is 
basically what my Vision of Evangelists is.... they take sayings
that make no particular sense and then carve out ways of making them 
make the sense they would like them to make. And of course they tend 
to do it differently... and when they do it the same way it shows
direct influence (of Q here or Mt?). 

But it's not in a class by itself, I'd say. I'm sure there are quite 
a  few Thomas sayings that, in their rather minimal context, are
still identifiably not meaning the same thing as the evangelists'
contexts make them mean.

Steve