Re: Q and Papias

To: Dick Ruble <druble@nervm.nerdc.ufl.edu>
Subject: Re: Q and Papias
From: Carl W Conrad <cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu>
Date: Thu, 27 Oct 1994 18:10:58 -0500 (CDT)
Cc: B-Greek@virginia.edu
In-Reply-To: <9410270207.AA22013@pear.wustl.edu>

On Wed, 26 Oct 1994, Dick Ruble wrote:
> Mr. Conrad wrote:
> >How can literary relationship between Luke and Matthew be conclusively
> >denied in the face of extended passages that have identical Greek text?
> >To me that is explicable in very few ways: (1) Mt copied Lk; (2) Lk
> >copied Mt; (3) Lk & Mt both copied a third source; (4) the identical
> >texts sprang like Athena from the head of Zeus. It is not simply a matter
> >of similar accounts of similar or the same events told by different
> >witnesses to the same events, but of identical Greek text in several
> >passages.
> As a Christian, my question is:  What position did the Holy Spirit take with 
> regard to influencing EXACT similarities within these passages?  I nominate 
> Him for alternative # (5) above.

To phrase a response matching your own, I have no problem "as a 
Christian" with supposing that the Holy Spirit operated then and now 
through human agents who make use of common ecclesiastical texts in their 
own inspired tasks as transmitters and renewers in new time-frames of 
older traditions, be they oral or written. I simply do not think it 
necessary to assume that the Holy Spirit works independently of human 
agents--although I wouldn't rule that out either. I would simply say that 
what can be explained by the most economical hypothesis ought to be so 
explained. 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA
(314) 935-4018
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu  OR cwc@oui.com