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Gnomic Quatrains in the Synoptics: An Experiment in Genre Definition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Ian H. Henderson
Affiliation:
Montreal, Canada

Extract

An abiding challenge for NT study is that of defining generic relationships among texts. The problem is especially significant for gospel sayings material, literary texts which most explicitly evoke and imitate the styles and forms of spoken language. It will be useful, then, to define generically a hitherto unnoticed Synoptic sayings-type exemplified just seven times in the gospels, especially if a class of unusually difficult texts may thereby be illuminated. Its rarity notwithstanding, the ‘Gnomic Quatrain’ (GQ) should be of particular interest as a special elaboration of the much more fundamental genre of the gnomic sentence.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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References

1 (1) Matt 6.24/Luke 16.13; (2) Luke 16.10–12; (3) Matt 6.22–23/Luke 11.34–(36); (4) Matt 10.24–25/Luke 6.40; (5) Matt 7.6; (6) Mark 2.21–22/Matt 9.16–17, Luke 5.36b–39; (7) 10.26b–27/Luke 12.2–3.

2 E.g., Betz, H.-D., ‘Matt 6.22–23 and Ancient Greek Theories of Vision’, Essays on the Sermon on the Mount (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985) 7187, 72–4Google Scholar; Allison, D., ‘The Eye is the Lamp of the Body (Matthew 6.22–23 = Luke 11.34–36)’, NTS 33 (1987) 6183, 71–8Google Scholar; Philo-nenko, M., ‘La parabole sur la lampe (Luc 11 33–36) et les horoscopes qoumrâniens’, ZNW 79 (1988) 145–51, 146.Google Scholar

3 Family resemblance is typographically implicit in Bultmann, R., Die Geschichte der synoptischen Tradition (FRLANT 29; 5th ed.; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1961) 77, 79–80, 86–7.Google Scholar See also Dupont, J., ‘Dieu et Mammon (MT 6,24: LC 16,13)’, Études sur les évangiles synoptiques 2 (ed. Dupont, J.; BEThL 70/B; Leuven: Leuven University, 1985) 551–67Google Scholar, 565, on formal similarity between Luke/Q 16.13 and Mark 2.21–22//; Allison, ‘Lamp’, 80, for ‘precisely the same structure’ (my emphasis) in Luke/16.13 and Luke/Q 11. 34–35; Philonenko, ‘Parabole’, 151 and n. 53, on the thought of the latter pair; S. Schulz, Q: Die Spruchquelle der Evangelisten (Zürich: Theologischer, 1972) 459–60, on relationship between Matt 6.24–25// and Matt 10.26//.

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7 Piper, R. A., Wisdom in the Q-tradition: The Aphoristic Teaching of Jesus (MSSNTS 61; Cambridge: University, 1988) 46.Google Scholar

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11 See n. 3 above.

12 Betz, , ‘Vision’, 77–8 and n. 29, cites only one instance.Google Scholar

13 Ibid., 73.

14 Philonenko, , ‘Parabole’, 146–7 and nn. 10–12Google Scholar. ‘Si le logion évangelique tire parti de Proverbes 20 27, c'est pour s'en distancer’ (147). See also Wettstein, J., Novum Testamentum Graecum (2 vols.; Amsterdam: Domerian, 1751; reprinted Graz: Akademische, 1962) 1.330–1.Google Scholar

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21 Tension between beginning and end in Matt 10.26–7// is strong enough that Piper, Wisdom, 62, calls v. 27 ‘clearly an intrusion, perhaps added subsequently to the collection’, though he elsewhere consistently treats vv. 26–7 as a unit, 56–9; cf. Kloppenborg, , Formation, 210Google Scholar. Schulz, , Q, 463–5, argues to the contrary, that v. 27 is a deliberately created foil to v. 26.Google Scholar

22 Betz, , ‘Vision’, 75–7, 77–8, 84–7.Google Scholar

23 Philonenko, ‘Parabole’, is chiefly interested in Luke 11.36, but nevertheless acknowledges that already in the GQ, Luke 11.34–5, ‘la doctrine qoumrânienne … ait été radicalisée’ (151). Cf. Allison, , ‘Lamp’, 6671.Google Scholar

24 Even if Luke/Q 11.36 were not someone's redactional addition to 11.34–5, v. 33 surely is; Allison, , ‘Lamp’, 71–3, 79Google Scholar; Kloppenborg, , Formation, 134–9Google Scholar; Piper, , Wisdom, 127–30Google Scholar; Schulz, , Q, 468–9.Google Scholar

25 ‘Dieu ou Mammon’, 552, cf. Bultmann's three-part analysis, Geschichte, 91, with his four-line typographical lay-out, 79.

26 ‘Parabole’, 146.

27 Allison, , ‘Lamp’, 73.Google Scholar

28 The double couplet, Matt 10.26b-27/Luke 12.2–3, is a partial exception; still, the second couplet clearly depends on the first for meaning within the GQ and is, in fact, lame in separate tradition. See n. 21 above, esp. Schulz.

29 See Kugel, J. L., The Idea of Biblical Poetry (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale, 1981)Google Scholar; Collins, T., Line-Forms in Hebrew Poetry (StP.SM 7; Rome: Biblical Institute, 1978)Google Scholar; O'Connor, M., Hebrew Verse Structure (Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 1980)Google Scholar; Watson, W. G. E., Classical Hebrew Poetry (JSOT Supplement 26; Sheffield: JSOT, 1984) esp. 114–59Google Scholar; Berlin, A., The Dynamics of Biblical Parallelism (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University, 1985)Google Scholar; Geller, S. A., ‘Theory and Method in the Study of Biblical Poetry’, JQR 73 (1982) 6577Google Scholar; Greenstein, E. L., ‘How Does Parallelism Mean?’, A Sense of Text (JQR Supplement; Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 1982) 4170.Google Scholar

30 Except for Matt 10.26b-7//, the following are based on Bultmann's laying-out of the texts; see nn. 3 and 25 above.

31 Bailey, K. E., Poet and Peasant (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1976) 110–18, 110.Google Scholar

32 Piper, , Wisdom, 88.Google Scholar

33 Ibid., 93.

34 Ibid., 86–99.

35 This is implied even by Piper's wise refusal to assign 16.9–13 with his other ‘aphoristic collections’ unambiguously to Q, instead concluding only ‘that the contact with double-tradition material is in fact closer than is often recognized and that the collection not only preceded Luke but may also have been known to Matthew’ (Wisdom, 194). Recognition of Luke 16.10–12 and 13 as GQs confirms the former conclusion without prejudice to the latter.

36 Fitzmyer, , ‘(Lk 16:1–13)’, 29 and n. 11, 38–9.Google Scholar

37 Schulz, , Q, 459–60.Google Scholar

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41 Philonenko, , ‘Parabole’, 151.Google Scholar

42 Ibid., 145–6.

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54 Beardslee, , ‘Uses’, 70–1Google Scholar; Carlston, , ‘Maxims’, 91.Google Scholar

55 Though Matthaean redaction shows a greater affinity for the form than Lucan or even Q (Matt 10.24–5, cf. Luke 6.40; Matt 6.22–3, cf. Luke 11.33–36).

56 κύριος-δολος/δουλεύειν: Luke 16.13//, Matt 10.24//; μαμωνς: Luke 16.13//, Luke 16.10–12; ῥήγνυμι: Mark 2.21–2//, Matt 7.6; φς/φωτεινός-σκοτία/σκότος/σκοτεινός: Matt 6.22–3//, Matt 10.26–7//.

57 See Kloppenborg, , Formation, 4406Google Scholar; contra Gerhardsson, B., Memory and Manuscript (ASNU 22; Uppsala: Gleerup, 1961)Google Scholar; idem, Tradition and Transmission in Early Christianity (CNT 20; Lund/Copenhagen: Gleerup/Munksgaard, 1964)Google Scholar; idem, ‘Der Weg der Evangelientradition’, Das Evangelium und die Evangelien (ed. P. Stuhlmacher; WUNT 28; Tübingen: Mohr, 1983) 79102Google Scholar; Riesenfeld, H., The Gospel Tradition (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1970) 129Google Scholar; Riesner, R., Jesus als Lehrer (WUNT 27; 2nd ed.; Tübingen: Mohr, 1984).Google Scholar

58 Petersen, , ‘Notion’, 136–9.Google Scholar

59 Ibid., 139, and n. 5 above.

60 Cf. Edwards, R. A., ‘The Eschatological Correlative as a Gattung in the NT’, ZNW 60 (1969) 920, 16–20, on the significance of inauthenticity.CrossRefGoogle Scholar