[B-Greek] Looking for a quote
Bryant J. Williams III
bjwvmw at com-pair.net
Sun Apr 2 03:21:19 EDT 2006
Dr. Haig,
But you're assuming that the Matthew was written by Matthew, Mark by Mark and
John by John, which as I'm sure you know, most scholars don't agree with. I
won't give the reasons here, because (a) they are already well-known and (b) it
would be beyond the scope of the list. Whatever reasons you have for the
traditional attributions of authorship, would you agree with me that the
external evidence for this is weak, and hence at very least has to be supported
by internal analysis of the texts?
No. I think the evidence that someone else wrote the gospels other than the
traditional authors is extremely weak since it is based on suppositions that
cannot be supported especially with the supposition of Q. The is no textual
basis for a Q document (supporters themselves debate on what makes up Q). (Just
as I give no credence for the JEPD theory). In fact, all we have are the
completed manuscripts. I realize that this goes against what most modern
scholars have to say on the matter, but having studied the problem every year
since college, I am still not convinced. In fact, I becoming more and more
certain every day of the Matthean Priority over against the Markan Priority;
although the jury is still out and still in doubt.
Furthermore, I give a more credence to the early church on who wrote whom,
because they were only 50 yrs from the date of the last epistles (I, II & III
John) or gospel (John) than the modern scholars. They went through this debate
before (Marcion & Anti-Marcion debates). In fact, the Gnostic Controversy,
Marcion and other such issues forced the church to finally decide on the Canon
of the NT. It was finally settle after a few centuries by the churches
themselves, but not by a council, ecumenical or otherwise, until the Council of
Trent (because of the problem with the Reformation and the refusal to recognize
the Apocrypha). We still debate the inclusion of the Apocrypha to this day!
Again, I point out that the LXX was used by the authors of the NT. Their grasp
of Koine Greek will very from author to author, topic to topic, and genre to
genre. That is pretty much all we can say. Why they chose to use a particular
text from the LXX instead of the MT will be based on hermeneutics,
presuppositions, history, theology, etc. I do know this, the Holy Spirit guided
them to choose the particular wording. I would expect that Jesus and John the
Baptist would have done the same. Remember of John the Baptist that the apostle
John was a disciple of John the Baptist at one time and would have quoted him
clearly about his role as predecessor of Jesus. John the Baptist avoided any
direct claim of declaring himself of being Elijah redux. That is probably why he
used the Isaiah 40 quotes instead. I would probably say that the gospel writers
were using the LXX is pointing to the passage as context reference.
It is too bad that there is a almost ignorance of the Intertestmental Period.
Most of us on the list would have a better understanding, but even then, I think
they would agree that a very good study of the Intertestmental Period would help
clear up a lot of misunderstanding, not all, but clearly a lot.
En Xristwi,
Rev. Bryant J. Williams III
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