The Lost Gospel: The Book of Q and Christian Origins

It is interesting to read this Gospel Q to find the similar quotes from the four Gospels to understand how and why the different Gospels were formed. This book shows what the pulpit pastor preaches the Gospels are Jesus bio. It is an honest quest for the history in developing the New Testament. You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free!

Brilliant! This is a work that brings to light the puzzling and frustrating discrepencies in the stories of the 4 major gospels of the Bible. Prof. Mack ties the work of John Kloppenborg with his own in a very understandable format concerning the "Q" document. This is a work for only the serious student of biblical history. The themes and evidence in the book make logical sense if a person has an above average background in liturature and perhaps a more than average open mind. Prepare to be blown away. I highly recommend another book "The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception" which provides archeological evidence for the theory of several pre modern groups following the teachings of the Jesus figure, directly tying in to this books theory. Again I reiterate...if you are willing to think, this is a book for you. However if you are not prepared for a faith rocking experiance leave it alone.

This is finally a discussion of the Q document that actually reprints the entirety of the document. Author Burton Mack argues for layers of redaction of the text, so he has a problem in how to present it: shall he try to reconstruct as best he can the document Matthew and Luke would have had in front of them? or shall he show the layers, so that readers can see how concise the original, uninterpolated Q is?He does both. He presents the text, restored as well as can be, with the layers in different typefaces, and gives the reader the whole of Q in its original.His reconstructing is done by following the orders that quotations from the text appear in Matthew and Luke.Once he has thoroughly familiarized the reader with Q, and with contemporaneous documents (the Dead Sea Scrolls, et al.), he discusses Q in a literary context: why it is what it is, a collection of sayings, and not the sort of historical biography we in the 21st century would like to have.He also discusses society at the time, to put Jesus of Nazareth into a context as well, to explain why people who may not have considered him messiah might still have collected his sayings. The community of Q was probably Jewish, as nothing in Q contradicts any Jewish practice, and were probably not Christians as we understand this idea today.If you have never read any literature about Christianity outside the Bible, this book will shake loose all your assumptions. But if you have read other books on very early Christianity, or the gospels as literature, or studied redaction in the gospels, and know of the Q document in theory, and the priority of Mark, there is nothing here that will alarm you.However, there is much here to fascinate, to enjoy, to enthrall. Mack's picture of ancient Judah is skillfully drawn. The new information here (and there is lots) is firmly argued, and just makes sense. Many of your long held questions will be answered. His writing is accessible; this book is written for readers, not for journal peer reviewers. Anyone with even a passing interest in the subject should be delighted with it.