The First Gospel: An Introduction to Q

by Arland D. Jacobson

The first gospel was not one of the four canonical gospels. It was probably Q, an early collection of Jesus' sayings used by Matthew and Luke to create their gospels. Q does not mention Jesus' death and resurrection, and it contains no birth or childhood stories. In Q, Jesus is pictured as a prophetic sage. The First Gospel provides a comprehensive introduction to the Q hypothesis. The author reviews and augments the arguments for the existence of Q. He concludes that the Q document was not merely a miscellaneous collection of sayings of Jesus that served as a source for Matthew and Luke. He sees it as a gospel in its own right, with its own history and own quite distinctive theology.

316 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1991

Reviews

[Kevin Marek · Rating 1 out of 5]

this is less a review than a question. Has anyone read this book? What is your opinion? I bought it because someone cited it in another work, saying that Jacobson actually sets out the argument for Q. As of this writing, I cannot find the cite that sent me to this, but I'm pretty sure it was JD Crossan. I've been working through that one, but it's slow going because I have to put it aside for long stretches because what gets passed off as argumentation is a bit hard to take. From what I can tell, Q is simply assumed, it having been accepted that the existence of this hypothetical construct has been demonstrated with virtual certainty. This is simply not true. The repercussions of this attitude is that no one presents a positive case for Q. The closest that I've come to an argument is that "only a fool or a madman would change Matthew's 'masterful' handling of the Q material in Sermon on the Mount. Luke was neither a fool nor a madman, so he was obviously not aware of Matthew, so he obviously used Q." Q.E.D. You will pardon me, but that is, at best, an expression of literary taste.