What is Bible Document 'Q'?
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Bible document 'Q' is a hypothetical document believed by some to be the source from which Matthew and Luke took some of their material about Jesus, particularly his sayings.
Document 'Q' has never been found but it's existence has been suggested by Biblical scholars because of the similarities between the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and the differences of these to the Gospel of Mark. Some scholars believe such a document once actually existed and some doubt it's existence.
Some writers (eg Dan Brown in his book the Da Vinci Code) have suggested that the early church deliberately surpressed early writing like 'Q' because it supposedly told a different story to the four Gospels. There is no eveidence for this. In any case, if the hypothisis is correct that Matthew and Luke used 'Q' as their source then we know what it said because it is now recorded in their accounts. Finding 'Q' will add nothing to what we already know and will not contradict the existing Gospel accounts. Nothing about this theory shakes our confidence in what we already know.
The designation 'Q' comes from Quelle (the German word meaning Source), the description German scholars gave to this hypothetical writing.
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