From:     Stevan Davies
Subject:  Re: Mark or Thomas
Date:     Thu, 18 Apr 1996 23:23:55


> OK, I've obviously missed something here.  Steve Davies says:
> 
> >it is wholly unclear whether
> >Thomas follows Mark or Mark follows Thomas or (the cop-out) both
> >are versions of some X the Unknown.
> 
> I thought your view, and the scholarly consensus as you presented
> it, was that Mark and Thomas were independent of each other (and
> that's why the Mark-Thomas parallels had a good claim to be
> authentic sayings).
> 
> Did I make that up?  What's going on here?
> 
> *******************
> Maureen Smith

What's going on here is that I am going to try and do
something new and different. Most of the sayings of
Jesus found in Mark's "public teachings" sections
1-8 and 11-12 are also found in Thomas. And most of 
them are demonstrably more "authentic" in Thomas' 
versions. 

Nobody on earth thinks that Mark used Thomas as a 
source....  Except me..... Not yet.....
But I'm going to try and show that he did.
This is a work in progress and my letters to crosstalk 
are letters from the middle of the work in progress.

So yes, there is a scholarly consensus that Mark and 
Thomas are independent of each other. But there may not
be quite such a consensus when I'm done because nobody
has ever had nerve or even the inkling that Thomas was a source
for Mark.  I'll be posting more on this matter as my research develops. 
But for now just bear in mind the two things I've posted recently:
Mark obviously uses the Thomas "prophet without honor" parable
to construct a narrative, and same for the "what goes inya" saying,
and same for "coin of caesar". Also the Mark 8:27 sequence is
practically all Markan redaction but it is from the same tradition as 
Thomas 13.

For now just let me say that the hypothesis that the Mark/Thomas
parallels are drawn from the deus-ex-machina, the black box
of the unknown "oral tradition" may be in for a bit of a fight.

Burton Mack argued in Semeia that Mark used Q as a source. I'm
not sure that he made the case at all... but when I read it I was 
all "a twitter" because halfway through it was very obvious to me
that I could use his line of argument, and more, and make a much 
better case that Mark used Thomas. 

I'll be back to y'all on this matter as the days go by.

Steve