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Title: Disagreements of ach Evangelist with the Minor Close Agreements of the Other Two
Author(s): DOWNING, Gerald F.
Journal: Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses
Volume: 80    Issue: 4   Date: December 2004   
Pages: 445-469
DOI: 10.2143/ETL.80.4.542107

Abstract :
Whilst the “Q” hypothesis is largely accepted in continental European research, it continues to be disputed in English language debate. Perhaps Mk conflated Mt and Lk (Griesbach – Farmer); or Lk conflated Mk and Mt (Farrer – Goulder). Largely unattended to in these debates, however, are the very frequent though not entirely consistent refusals of the imagined third author to copy his sources when they agree verbatim or very closely, while happy to copy precisely one or the other in the same immediate context. Some sixty instances are discussed. Where other ancient authors explain their preference for agreement in their sources, these writers have to be imagined refusing just that, and going to considerable pains to avoid it. Mk and Q as the sources for Mt and Lk remains by far the more plausible hypothesis.

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