Q, the Earliest Gospel: An Introduction to the Original Stories and Sayings of Jesus Book

Scholars of theology are essentially universal in their agreement that the Gospel According to St. Mark, composed in the ninth decade of the first century, was the first gospel written. Gospels According to St. Matthew and St. Luke were written at least a decade later, with Matthew appearing first. The authors of each gospel are anonymous, but the authors of Matthew and Luke quite obviously used Mark as a source. In fact, 45% of Matthew and 41% of Luke are comprised of passages that are very similar, if not identical, to passages in Mark. However, there are passages comprising 25% of Matthew and 23% of Luke that are likewise similar, if not identical, but do not appear in Mark. Scholars have postulated that these verses came from another source, now known as the Q gospel (Q from the German "quelle" meaning source). In "Q, the Earliest Gospel", John Kloppenborg makes a convincing, albeit somewhat boring, argument that the Q gospel did exist, was written mid-first century, and is now lost to history. His relatively short account (184 pages) reflects an in-depth knowledge of the topic, but reads like a technical report, requiring the reader to use scratch paper and pen to follow his arguments.

For those who have an interest in the development of the scriptures, this book is highly informative. However, I did not find it an enjoyable read. In fact, I put it away for a while and then returned to it.