The Composition of the Sayings Source

This volume analyzes the "Q materials" in the light of compositional conventions of ancient instructional genres. The author begins by assessing literary-critical approaches to Q which began with Harnack and have culminated in the work of Kloppenborg, Sato, and others. Next he articulates a theory of genre analysis drawn from text-linguistics, literary criticism, and rhetorical criticism. An array of ancient paraenetic texts is used to generate genre-critical models, in turn applied comprehensively to the double tradition materials. The results are used to critically assess recent redaction-history theories of Q's formation and to locate Q more securely among ancient paraenetic genres.The book will be of interest to synoptic gospels scholarship, historians of Christian origins, literary critics, and those investigating the production, social function, and performance of texts in early Christianity.