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This is the first full account of the lost gospel of Jesus' original followers, revealing him to be a Jewish Socrates who was mythologized into the New Testament Christ. Compiled by his followers during his lifetime, the Book of Q (from Quelle, German for source) became the prime foundation for the New Testament gospels. Once lost, it has now been reconstructed through a century of scholarship.
Instead of telling a dramatic story about Jesus' life as the Christian gospels do, the Book of Q contained only his sayings. The first followers of Jesus focused not upon his life and destiny, but on the social experiment called for by his teachings. Their book collected his proverbs, aphorisms, and parables to offer instruction in living authentically in the midst of a most confusing time.
In presenting his own translation, Burton Mack explains how the text of Q was determined and explores the implications of the discovery that Jesus was transformed into the dying and rising messianic savior of Christianity by the New Testament gospels.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
September 22, 2023 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780062275684
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780062275684
- File size: 1058 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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February 1, 1993
If its premise is accepted by a preponderance of theologians, this debatable study could bring about a rethinking of the origins of Christianity. Mack presents an analysis of the so-called Book of Q , a supposed collection of Jesus's sayings that was compiled by his followers during his lifetime. Certain scholars, deducing the existence of the book, have reconstructed the putative text of this ``lost gospel'' during the last 20 years through a comparison of the gospels of Matthew and Luke, who, it is contended, used Q as a common basis (Q stands for Quelle , German for ``source''). Mack, a professor of New Testament at the School of Theology at Claremont College in Los Angeles, concludes that ``the people of Q''--Jesus's contemporaries--thought of him as a teacher, not as a messiah, and that they did not regard his death as a divine or saving event. Mack offers an earthy, colloquial translation of the Book of Q with its wisdom sayings, exhortations, parables and apocalyptic pronouncements. His portrayal of the early Jesus movement reveals a community based on fictive kinship without regard to class, gender or ethnicity. The discovery of Q , Mack argues, compels us to see the New Testament gospels as imaginative creations rather than historical accounts. $25,000 ad/promo; BOMC and QPB selections.
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