A recent thread asked about the rapture teaching and I got to thinking about Luke 17:34,35 and Matt 24:40,41. It is generally agreed this was sourced from Q. Notice that Luke and Matt place the section including, "two women will be grinding at the hand mill one will be taken along the other left" in completely different settings. Matt slips it in the mini-apocalypse from mark 13 while Luke separates it to another discussion and setting. Matt not only surrounds but interupts the Q section (including lightning and vultures and Noah reference) with Markan material (matt 24.29-35).
| Each author, as they read today, included a scenario ommitted by the other. (2 in bed in Luke , while 2 in field in Matt) ' The 'two in a field' sentence may have been added later to Luke as it appears in only half of the early manuscripts ( OR it may have been original to the text and sourced from Q like Matt's and edited out in favour of the "two lying in a bed" senario. If the "mill" and "field" scenarios are from Q, where did Luke get the added "bed" material? |
Some suggest the "2 in a bed" scenario was sourced from G Thomas 61:1 which reads:
Jesus says: "Two will lie down there on one bed: one will die, the other will live." Salome says: "Who art thou, man; from whom hast thou that thou shouldst lie on my couch and eat at my table?" Jesus says to her: "I am he who has been brought into being by Him who is equal I have been given what belongs to my Father!"?"I am thy disciple!"
Note that the commentary below suggests that even this phrase in G Thomas is the work of editorial ingenuity.
Doresse writes: "The main part of this paragraph is taken from some apocryphal gospel (perhaps the Gospel of the Egyptians?). It centres on Salome's question to Jesus: 'Who art thou? Where have you come from, to sit on my couch and eat my table?' (the couch of course being the place where they reclined at table). Then, this reference to the couch probably led to the artificial addition at the beginning of the sentence, of the passage: 'Two will lie down on one bed . . .' The next step was an addition by the editor (another example of such a commentary introduced by the editor is found in 115): from the association of these two texts, he tried to bring out the idea that duality is the source of death and darkness, while unity - isolation, solitariness - leads to light and life. Thus the phrase: 'Because of that . . .' no doubt introduces the editor's comment: 'Because of those two sayings ("Two will lie down . . ." and "Salome says . . ."), I will give you the following teaching. . . .'" (The Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostics, p. 375)
Funk and Hoover write of 61:1, "Live or die": "Most of the Fellows were of the opinion that the version in Thomas was older than the Q version because it is simpler. However, in its Thomean form it was probably a piece of common wisdom: death strikes when we least expect it and rather arbitrarily. Two on a couch probably refers to a dinner party or symposium - a place one is least likely to anticipate death. This context is confirmed by the remark of Salome in v. 2: 'Who are you, mister? You have climbed onto my couch and eaten from my table as if you are from someone.' Jesus is here represented as an intruder at a dinner party." (The Five Gospels, p. 507)