Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Q is for Quelle

Q is for Quelle

"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." (2 Timothy 3:16-17, emphasis mine)

The bible and historic Christianity both claim that the bible is inerrant. The basic meaning of inerrancy means that the text, in this case the bible, is accurate, truthful, and totally free of error in its original autographs or writings.

If the original autographs or writings were inerrant, we must answer the question how is it the case? It is because of what is known as the doctrine of inspiration. Paul in the above passage asserts that all of the Old Testament writings were breathed out by God. In some fashion unknown to us, God “breathed” his words into the various writers who then wrote the very words of God.

Inspiration has been under attack since shortly after the individual books of the bible were written. Since mankind as a whole refuses to be placed under the authority of God’s word contained in the bible, mankind has sought to destroy, dilute, defuse, and to discount the fact that these various men could have written within the scope of their own personality the very words of God. Various theories have been developed to destroy this very precious doctrine of inspiration.

An example of this is the ridiculous assertion that Matthew, and Luke had to have another document, in addition to Mark from which to copy when they wrote their respective gospels. The theory was developed that a document which no longer exists must have existed in order to provide the material that they would need to complete their gospels.

Q is the term given to the second source supposedly used by Matthew and Luke in addition to their copy of Mark. The siglum, a symbol used to denote a manuscript, “Q” derives from the German word "Quelle," which means "Source." It is thought that Q is a written collection of various oral sayings and teachings supposedly used by Matthew and Luke. It is thought that in order to have written their gospels they had to copy from Mark and a second source, a “mysterious document” called Q.

The existence of Q has been challenged by many scholarly critics. I for one do not believe that first, it ever existed, and secondly that it was ever needed. There is neither doubt nor harm in thinking that both Matthew and Luke had a copy of Mark available to them while they were writing their gospels. However, I strenuously reject the idea that Matthew and Luke could not have written their gospels without copying from Mark and this mysterious source called Q.

Matthew and Luke, not to mention Mark all wrote under or by the inspiration of God. Luke states that he painstakingly researched his material. Luke was able to talk to many eye-witnesses including Mary the mother of Jesus. Matthew recorded information from a first hand, eye-witness perspective. After all, he was present throughout the ministry of Jesus, beginning with the baptism of Jesus all the way to the resurrection. The events or teaching that Matthew and Luke were not privy to was given to them by the Holy Spirit through the doctrine of inspiration.

9 comments:

RHYTHM AND RHYME said...

Food for thought here Gregg with this superb "Q" write. It's given me something to mull over in my mind for the rest of the day.

Have a lovely day.
Yvonne,

Anonymous said...

Amen!
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God
What does All mean?
All means All !

Solid Rock or Sinking Sand said...

Great post Gregg. The first thing that I needed to do when I became a follower of Christ was to accept the fact that the Holy Bible was "God Breathed" and that it was God's complete revelation set out for mankind. The big problem we have today is that everyone tries to interpret God's Word to fit their own lifestyles instead of allowing God to interpret His word for us through the Holy Spirit. Just my thoughts on the subject. God bless, Lloyd

Survivormama said...

Gregg as usual this was well thoght out, reserched and written, I am amazed at the nuggets I have gleaned from finding your blog...God bless you friend and Brother in Christ, indeed..ALL scripture is God breathed!

Beth Zimmerman said...

Another great post, Gregg! You are really putting time and effort into these and I appreciate and applaud you! Job well done!

As for making a video? I have a program on my laptop that I recorded myself on and then uploaded the video to my Photobucket account. Pretty easy.

And yes ... I went to church Sunday MORNING and napped Sunday AFTERNOON! LOL!

Lisa said...

My pastor did a teaching on the Bible last year that really opened my eyes. I am continually learning new things even though I've read the Bible cover-to-cover more than 5 times. Your posts teach me things I've never known, too. Thank you for putting your heart into these posts. It shows.

As to your question of whether I knew the origin of Amazing Grace, who wrote it and what his background was before he wrote it; here is my answer. His first name was John (I think?) and he was a slave trader. I have heard the story several times, yes. :) Have you heard the version I put up on my blog yesterday?

RCUBEs said...

He is the truth, so what is there to prove? I'm glad we have His Word to guide us in this life's journey. Great "Q" post. God bless.

Patricia Stoltey said...

Gregg, we all write under or by the inspiration of God, even when we're writing little amateur sleuth mysteries or important training manuals. We need to remember that.

Wanda said...

You've provided some new information to me once again Greg. Good job!