My last post at the ending entertained certain puzzling questions in regard to the Gospels. An interesting theory is put forth by Evan Powell in his book titled "The Unfinished Gospel". He propounds something along these lines, which questions traditional views to a large extent:
John came first who was anti-Petrine (Peter). Then Mark made his rebuttal, but mysteriously ended his gospel at a strange place, in that the disciples do not encounter the risen Christ after his resurrection from the tomb, as in the other Gospels. Ironically, the missing material may have been moved over to John chapter 21, or else Mark intentionally omitted it, preferring to remain silent on that portion of scripture. The two endings that we currently have in the book of Mark, a short and a longer ending, are known to have been appended later by some kind soul who noticed the discrepancy and thought to make amends for it. And so, the "unfinished Gospel" is supposed to be made well.
The significance of this theory is that if the Gospels of John and Mark came first with Luke and then Matthew following, it totally unnecessitates an external Q source for the Gospels. All the material that Luke and Matthew used can be found in the other two Gospel writers.
The further question arises as to what was this quarrel in the early church between the Johanine and the Petrine factions that resulted in the transmission of the earliest Gospels of Jesus Christ?
But wait, another problem enters in ... my next post will attempt to address it.
No comments:
Post a Comment