Judging Q and saving Jesus saving and Q Judging The monograph Judging Q and saving Jesus is ambitious in its scope and judicious in its conclusions. According to Llewellyn Howes, the macrogenre of the Sayings Source Q is sapiential with occasional insertions of apocalyptic microstructures and motifs. He hereby puts an end to the great ‘either-or’ of contemporary Jesus scholarship that the historical Jesus was ‘either eschatological or not’ – an alternative that dates back to Albert Schweitzer. Judging Q and Chief Editor, A.G. van Aarde Judging Q and saving Jesus is ambitious in its scope and judicious in its conclusions. The central problem investigated by Llewellyn Howes is exactly how ‘wisdom’ and ‘apocalyptic’ work together in Q, both compositionally and generically, and how they relate to the historical saving Jesus Jesus. Showing a mastery of the relevant primary and secondary literature, Howes – after introductory chapters on the history of Historical Jesus research and Q as a document of the first century – undertakes first of all a detailed examination of Son of Man and eschatological sayings in Q. Howes judges three Son of Man sayings (Q 7:35, 9:58, 12:10) to be authentic, Q’s contribution to the wisdom-apocalypticism two of which belong to the redactional layer of Q, and all three embedded in passages that display a sapiential form of argumentation. Howes also finds that generally, and even when debate in historical Jesus studies used apocalyptically, the term Son of Man tends to support arguments best understood as sapiential in outlook. This is consistent with the sapiential genre of the document as a whole. This finding is supported by the close and careful exegesis of Q 6:37–38 (on not judging) … Howes reconstructs the original wording of the saying in Q and takes the reader deep into the relevant background literature, particularly on the idea of ‘weighing’ in judgment (psychostasia), determining in the end that the saying is entirely sapiential. Daniel A. Smith, Clark and Mary Wright Chair of New Testament Theology, Faculty of Theology, Huron University College, London, Ontario, Canada Judging Q and Saving Jesus is a book that must be commended first of all for its ambition to tackle large, but also extremely crucial issues. The solutions that are provided … are very well argued and … open up significant methodological avenues to which other scholars would do well to pay attention … The textual analyses of single Q passages constitute another great strength of the book. In particular, the deep and convincing reading of Q 6:37–38 … ought to be taken as a model for future similar research on other passages in Q or in other early Christian writings. [T ]he very balanced conclusion with respect to the impact of a study of Howes Llewellyn the Q genre on historical Jesus research is another strong point of the book. Too much of the current writing on the subject is still hindered by the use of too abstract categorizations. Judging Q escapes such problems by attending at categorical distinctions first and foremost by way of the careful and critical reading of primary sources. Giovanni B. Bazzana, Associate Professor of New Testament, Harvard Divinity School www.aosis.co.za ISBN: 978-0-620-68737-9 ® Llewellyn Howes Μὴ κρίνετε, ἵνα μὴ κριθῆτε· ἐν ᾧ γὰρ κρίματι κρίνετε κριθήσεσθε, καὶ ἐν ᾧ μέτρῳ μετρεῖτε μετρηθήσεται ὑμῖν. Judging Q and saving Jesus Q’s contribution to the wisdom-apocalypticism debate in historical Jesus studies LLEWELLYN HOWES Religious Studies Board at AOSIS Chief Editor Andries van Aarde, Honorary Professor, University of Pretoria, South Africa Head Office AOSIS (Pty) Ltd Board Members Postnet Suite #110 Gerald West, Associate Editor, School of Religion, Private Bag X19 Philosophy and Classics in the College of Humanities, Durbanville 7551 University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa South Africa Tel: +27 21 975 2602 Pieter G.R. de Villiers, Associate Editor, Extraordinary Fax: +27 21 975 4635 Professor in Biblical Spirituality, Faculty of Theology, Email: [email protected] University of the Free State, South Africa Website: http://www.aosis.co.za Charles Amjad-Ali, Emeritus, the Martin Luther King, Jr., Professor of Justice and Christian Community and Director of Islamic Studies, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, United States Warren Carter, Professor of New Testament, Brite Divinity School, Fort Worth, United States Christian Danz, Dekan der Evangelisch- Theologischen Fakultät der Universität Wien and Ordentlicher Universitätsprofessor für Systematische Theologie und Religionswissenschaft, University of Vienna, Judging Q and saving Jesus – Q’s contribution to the wisdom- Austria apocalypticism debate in historical Jesus studies ISBN: 978-0-620-68737-9 Musa W. Dube, Department of Theology and Religious How to cite this work: Howes, L., 2015, Judging Q and saving - Q’s Studies, Faculty of Humanities, University of Botswana, Botswana contribution to the wisdom-apocalypticism debate in historical Jesus studies. http://www.dx.doi.org/10.4102/aosis.jqsj.2015.01 David D. Grafton, Director of Graduate Studies and Associate Professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations, Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Listed in OAPEN (http://www.oapen.org), DOAB (http://www. United States doabooks.org/) and indexed by Google Scholar Jens Herzer, Theologische Fakultät der Universität Leipzig, © 2015 L. Howes Germany Copyright on this work is retained by the author(s). Licensee: Jeanne Hoeft, Dean of Students and Associate Professor of AOSIS (Pty) Ltd. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Pastoral Theology and Pastoral Care, Saint Paul School of Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike International License. Theology, United States Every effort has been made to protect the interest of copyright holders. Should any infringement have occurred inadvertently, the D. Andrew Kille, Former Chair of the SBL Psychology and publisher apologises and undertakes to amend the omission in the Bible Section, and Editor of the Bible Workbench, San Jose, United States event of a reprint. William R.G. Loader, Emeritus Professor Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia Isabel A. Phiri, Associate General Secretary for Public Witness and Diakonia, World Council of Churches, Geneva, Switzerland Copy editor: Margot von Beck Marcel Sarot, Emeritus, Professor of Fundamental Theology, Proof-reader: Michael Maart Tilburg School of Catholic Theology, Tilburg University, Project manager: Rochelle Flint the Netherlands Front cover: Cecile de Villiers Corneliu C. Simut, Professor of Historical and Dogmatic The publisher accept no responsibility for any statement made or Theology, Emanuel University, Oradea, Bihor, Romania opinion expressed in this publication. Consequently, the publishers Rothney S. Tshaka, Professor and Head of Department of and copyright holder will not be liable for any loss or damage Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology, University of sustained by any reader as a result of his or her action upon any South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa statement or opinion in this work. Elaine M. Wainwright, Head of School of Theology, Printed and Bound University of Auckland, New Zealand Mega Digital (Pty) Ltd, South Africa iv Research Justification Llewellyn Howes (PhD), Research Associate, Department of New Testament Studies of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Pretoria The monograph Judging Q and saving Jesus is characterised by careful textual analysis, showing a piercing critical eye in its impressive engagement with the secondary literature, and sharp and insightful critique. The target audience are specialists in the field of research on the Sayings Source Q (the hypothetical source of certain sayings of Jesus common to Matthew and Luke), historical Jesus, and early Christian theology. The book takes the stance that the hypothetical document Q can be reconstructed with sufficient precision and that this enables biblical scholars to study with confidence its genre and its thematic and ideological profile. The genre issue is central to the book overall structure and the alternative proposals are discussed at length and with sophistication. The author’s inference is that Q’s macrogenre is sapiential with occasional insertions of apocalyptic microstructures and motifs. This finding embodies progress in Historical Jesus studies. An opposing trend has been to label Jesus an apocalypticist, so that the great ‘either-or’ of contemporary Jesus scholarship has been ‘either eschatological or not’, an alternative that dates back to Albert Schweitzer. The author finds that generally, and even when used apocalyptically, the term Son of Man tends to support arguments best understood as sapiential in outlook. This is consistent with the sapiential genre of the document as a whole. This finding is supported by the close and careful exegesis of Q 6:37−38 (on not judging). He reconstructs the original wording of this saying ‘on not judging’ and explores the idea of ‘weighing’ in judgment (psychostasia), determining in the end that the saying is entirely sapiential. Chief Editor, A.G. van Aarde The publisher and Editorial Board certify that this work was evaluated in a two-step review process. An initial selection review process by a panel of domain experts; followed by in-depth double-blind peer reviews by three reviewers. They were selected by the Board being content experts in the field of early Christian literature. v Acknowledgments This publication would not have been possible without the guidance and support of my mentor, friend and academic father, Andries G. van Aarde. Thank you for everything! The publication would also not have been possible without the backing of Johan Buitendag, Dean of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Pretoria. I also need to thank Daniel A. Smith, who invited me to deliver a paper at the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) Annual Meeting in 2013, and opened up a whole new world for me. Many improvements to this book are directly related to my involvement with the Q program unit of the SBL. I am further heavily indebted to James M.