Horizontal Synoptic Solution

[Adam]

Horizontal Synoptic Solution
I need to start a new thread even though this new one flows right out of my “Ur-Marcan Priority? Or Inner Circle?” That thread should be kept clear for open-minded discussion. This new thread should focus on just my new Horizontal Hypothesis, but building on my posts in the old thread on October 10, 25 and November 6, 16, and 21. But post replies there if you prefer.

This new Horizontal Hypothesis gets around the conundrum that bedeviled Q studies aiming to include a Passion Narrative within Q, to enable it to be something like the Gospel according to the Hebrews and not just a sayings source unknown to ancient traditions (though the Gospel of Thomas turned up anyway). Now that we can see Q as not just the Double Tradition but also the Triple Tradition, we know we can find lots of Passion Narrative that appears in the Synoptics alone and in more than just one of them. The Johannine Passion Narrative seems to have been the Aramaic tail-end to the Aramaic Q1 and thus follows the usual rule that verbal parallels are never very extensive. “PN” (as more distinctive than “Q1” and probably never more than just an attachment to Q1) denotes these verses. Where there are close verbal parallels among the three Synoptics (in this narrative section, but in general this pertains to where Matthew and Luke agree closely), “Q2” denote this second layer that originated in Greek. (Where verbal exactness seems lacking, “Q” will suffice.) For the greatest challenge taking Matthew as the text to divide, wherever Matthew and Mark agree my hypothesis holds that the nature here is M (M + M2,) material, denote this as “M”. This could also apply to material unique to Matthew but omitted by Mark, but here in the Passion Narrative I will presume that the unique material was added after the Grundschrift was completed with M + M2, namely when Matthew was derived from it: denote this as “MT”.

Of course the Johannine Passion Narrative source tends to be verbally loose from its Aramaic origin, but when translated into Greek some bleeding across from the various translations makes some verbal closeness feasible, and any exactness here does not mean that such verses are Q2 in origin even though independently telling the same thing. Conversely, looseness in verbal parallels can still allow that a Greek original (Q2 or M) has been roughly handled. Thus the following is suggestive rather than firmly established. Nevertheless, that the Johannine PN verses are looser does help provide scholarly proof that the Synoptics borrowed from John rather than the reverse. Had John borrowed, the verses that gospel borrowed would not happen to be different by their greater contrasts between their different Synoptics incarnations. And of course any such borrowing from Greek Synoptics would tend to verbal exactness, but they do not. (My analysis below of Matthew 26 to 28 focusses on parallels with Mark, but results comparing it with Luke and/or Mark with Luke might modify the results. Thus I have not bothered to underscore the words that are identical in this one pairing.)
The PN reading below was originally in John, so comes through intact for a continuous read-through. More of note is that skipping along from one Q2 (or Q) section to another gives a coherent reading as well. This would support Q2 having been a stand-alone Greek text that got layered on top of Q1 that was still in Aramaic. Its repeated mention of the “other Mary” may indicate that she was the source used by the Q2 author after the disciples had fled after Mt. 26:56. She had a different perspective than Mary Magdalene who is featured in the PN sections in John.

This turns out to be a continuation of a project I got published in 2006, “Resurrection Sources”, expanded to the previous two chapters. A more thorough study of these earlier passages would extract relevant verses from Mark and Luke as well, as I did in this article:
http://www.megasociety.org/noesis/181.htm#Resurrection
(in which PN here = Petrine Ur-Marcus there and Q2 here = Twelve-Source there)
(Source for the Bible text below: )
http://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Matthew+26 NRSV (easygoing on copyright of just three chapters)

Matthew 26
The Plot to Kill Jesus
Q2 26:1 When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, 2 ‘You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.’
PN &M 3 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, Q2 4 and they conspired to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. 5 But they said, ‘Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people.’
The Anointing at Bethany
M 6 Now while Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper,* PN 7 a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment, and she poured it on his head as he sat at the table. PN 8 But when the disciples saw it, they were angry and said, ‘Why this waste? 9 For this ointment could have been sold for a large sum, and the money given to the poor.’ 10 But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, ‘Why do you trouble the woman? She has performed a good service for me. 11 For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. M 12 By pouring this ointment on my body she has prepared me for burial. 13 Truly I tell you, wherever this good news* is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.’
Judas Agrees to Betray Jesus
Q 14 Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests 15 and said, ‘What will you give me if I betray him to you?’ They paid him thirty pieces of silver. 16 And from that moment he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.
The Passover with the Disciples
Q2 17 On the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, ‘Where do you want us to make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?’ 18 He said, ‘Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, “The Teacher says, My time is near; I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.” ’ 19 So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover meal.
PN & M 20 When it was evening, he took his place with the twelve;* 21 and while they were eating, he said, ‘Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.’ 22 And they became greatly distressed and began to say to him one after another, ‘Surely not I, Lord?’ 23 He answered, ‘The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. Q2 24 The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born.’ MT 25 Judas, who betrayed him, said, ‘Surely not I, Rabbi?’ He replied, ‘You have said so.’
The Institution of the Lord’s Supper
Q2 26 While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’ 27 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you; M 28 for this is my blood of the* covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you, I will never again drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.’
M 30 When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Peter’s Denial Foretold
Q2 31 Then Jesus said to them, ‘You will all become deserters because of me this night; for it is written,
“I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.”
32 But after I am raised up, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.’ 33 Peter said to him, ‘Though all become deserters because of you, I will never desert you.’ PN 34 Jesus said to him, ‘Truly I tell you, this very night, before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.’ 35 Peter said to him, ‘Even though I must die with you, I will not deny you.’ M And so said all the disciples.
Jesus Prays in Gethsemane
Q2 36 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, ‘Sit here while I go over there and pray.’ M 37 He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and agitated. 38 Then he said to them, ‘I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and stay awake with me.’ Q2 39 And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.’ 40 Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, ‘So, could you not stay awake with me one hour? 41 Stay awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial;* M the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.’ 42 Again he went away for the second time and prayed, ‘My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.’ 43 Again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44 So leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words. 45 Then he came to the disciples and said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 Get up, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand.’
The Betrayal and Arrest of Jesus
PN 47 While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, arrived; with him was a large crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. M 48 Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, ‘The one I will kiss is the man; arrest him.’ 49 At once he came up to Jesus and said, ‘Greetings, Rabbi!’ and kissed him. 50 Jesus said to him, ‘Friend, do what you are here to do.’ Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and arrested him. PN 51 Suddenly, one of those with Jesus put his hand on his sword, drew it, and struck the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear. 52 Then Jesus said to him, ‘Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. MT 53 Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then would the scriptures be fulfilled, which say it must happen in this way?’ PN & Q2 55 At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, ‘Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as though I were a bandit? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not arrest me. M 56 But all this has taken place, so that the scriptures of the prophets may be fulfilled.’ Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.
Jesus before the High Priest
PN 57 Those who had arrested Jesus took him to Caiaphas the high priest, in whose house the scribes and the elders had gathered. 58 But Peter was following him at a distance, as far as the courtyard of the high priest; and going inside, he sat with the guards in order to see how this would end. M 59 Now the chief priests and the whole council were looking for false testimony against Jesus so that they might put him to death, 60 but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two came forward 61 and said, ‘This fellow said, “I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.” ’ 62 The high priest stood up and said, ‘Have you no answer? What is it that they testify against you?’ 63 But Jesus was silent. Then the high priest said to him, Q2 ‘I put you under oath before the living God, tell us if you are the Messiah,* the Son of God.’ 64 Jesus said to him, MT ‘You have said so. But I tell you,
Q2 From now on you will see the Son of Man
seated at the right hand of Power
M and coming on the clouds of heaven.’
65 Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, ‘He has blasphemed! Q2 Why do we still need witnesses? You have now heard his blasphemy. 66 What is your verdict?’ M They answered, ‘He deserves death.’ 67 Then they spat in his face and struck him; and some slapped him,Q2 68 saying, ‘Prophesy to us, you Messiah!* Who is it that struck you?’
Peter’s Denial of Jesus
PN 69 Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. A servant-girl came to him and said, ‘You also were with Jesus the Galilean.’ 70 But he denied it before all of them, saying, ‘I do not know what you are talking about.’ 71 When he went out to the porch, another servant-girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, ‘This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.’* Q2 72 Again he denied it with an oath, ‘I do not know the man.’ 73 After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, ‘Certainly you are also one of them, for your accent betrays you.’ 74 Then he began to curse, and he swore an oath, ‘I do not know the man!’ At that moment the cock crowed. 75 Then Peter remembered what Jesus had said: ‘Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.’ And he went out and wept bitterly.

Matthew 27
Jesus Brought before Pilate
Q2 27:1 When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people conferred together against Jesus in order to bring about his death. 2 They bound him, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate the governor.
The Suicide of Judas
MT 3 When Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus* was condemned, he repented and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. 4 He said, ‘I have sinned by betraying innocent* blood.’ But they said, ‘What is that to us? See to it yourself.’ 5 Throwing down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed; and he went and hanged himself. 6 But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, ‘It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since they are blood money.’ 7 After conferring together, they used them to buy the potter’s field as a place to bury foreigners. 8 For this reason that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. 9 Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah,* ‘And they took* the thirty pieces of silver, the price of the one on whom a price had been set,* on whom some of the people of Israel had set a price, 10 and they gave* them for the potter’s field, as the Lord commanded me.’
Pilate Questions Jesus
PN 11 Now Jesus stood before the governor; and the governor asked him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ Jesus said, ‘You say so.’ Q2 12 But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he did not answer. M 13 Then Pilate said to him, ‘Do you not hear how many accusations they make against you?’ 14 But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed.
Barabbas or Jesus?
PN 15 Now at the festival the governor was accustomed to release a prisoner for the crowd, anyone whom they wanted. M 16 At that time they had a notorious prisoner, called Jesus* Barabbas. 17 So after they had gathered, Pilate said to them, ‘Whom do you want me to release for you, Jesus* Barabbas or Jesus who is called the Messiah?’* 18 For he realized that it was out of jealousy that they had handed him over. MT 19 While he was sitting on the judgement seat, his wife sent word to him, ‘Have nothing to do with that innocent man, for today I have suffered a great deal because of a dream about him.’ M 20 Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus killed. 21The governor again said to them, ‘Which of the two do you want me to release for you?’ And they said, ‘Barabbas.’ 22 Pilate said to them, ‘Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?’* Q2 All of them said, ‘Let him be crucified!’ 23 Then he asked, ‘Why, what evil has he done?’ But they shouted all the more, ‘Let him be crucified!’
Pilate Hands Jesus over to Be Crucified
MT 24 So when Pilate saw that he could do nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took some water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, ‘I am innocent of this man’s blood;* see to it yourselves.’ 25 Then the people as a whole answered, ‘His blood be on us and on our children!’ 26 So he released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified.
The Soldiers Mock Jesus
PN 27 Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters,* and they gathered the whole cohort around him. 28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on his head. They put a reed in his right hand and knelt before him and mocked him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ M 30 They spat on him, and took the reed and struck him on the head. 31 After mocking him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.
The Crucifixion of Jesus
Q 32 As they went out, they came upon a man from Cyrene named Simon; they compelled this man to carry his cross. PN 33 And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), M 34 they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall; but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. PN 35 And when they had crucified him, they divided his clothes among themselves by casting lots;* 36 then they sat down there and kept watch over him. 37 Over his head they put the charge against him, which read, ‘This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.’
Q2 38 Then two bandits were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. M 39 Those who passed by derided* him, shaking their heads 40 and saying, ‘You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.’ 41 In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking him, saying, Q 42‘He saved others; he cannot save himself.* He is the King of Israel; let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. MT 43 He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he wants to; for he said, “I am God’s Son.” ’ Q2 44 The bandits who were crucified with him also taunted him in the same way.
The Death of Jesus
Q2 45 From noon on, darkness came over the whole land* until three in the afternoon. M 46 And about three o’clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ 47 When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, ‘This man is calling for Elijah.’ PN 48 At once one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink. M 49 But the others said, ‘Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.’* 50 Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last.* MT 51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. MT The earth shook, and the rocks were split. 52The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. 53 After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many. Q 54 Now when the centurion and those with him, who were keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were terrified and said, M ‘Truly this man was God’s Son!’*
Q2 55 Many women were also there, looking on from a distance; they had followed Jesus from Galilee and had provided for him. 56 Among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.
The Burial of Jesus
PN 57 When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. 58 He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. 59 So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth Q2 60 and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away. 61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.
The Guard at the Tomb
MT 62 The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate 63 and said, ‘Sir, we remember what that impostor said while he was still alive, “After three days I will rise again.” 64 Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day; otherwise his disciples may go and steal him away, and tell the people, “He has been raised from the dead”, and the last deception would be worse than the first.’ 65 Pilate said to them, ‘You have a guard* of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can.’* 66 So they went with the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone.

Matthew 28
The Resurrection of Jesus
PN 28:1 After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. MT 2 And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4 For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men.
Q2 5 But the angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he* lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples, “He has been raised from the dead,* M and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.” This is my message for you.’ M 8 So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them and said, ‘Greetings!’ And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshipped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.’
The Report of the Guard
MT 11 While they were going, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests everything that had happened. 12 After the priests* had assembled with the elders, they devised a plan to give a large sum of money to the soldiers, 13 telling them, ‘You must say, “His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.” 14 If this comes to the governor’s ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.’ 15 So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story is still told among the Jews to this day.
The Commissioning of the Disciples
M 16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’*

[Peter Kirby]

Open minds everywhere want to know... where is the evidence?

[Adam]

Open minds know that none of the extant Synoptic Problem hypotheses are free of fatal flaws, and that has been explored in my original thread here, Ur-Marcan Priority? Or Inner Circle? viewtopic.php?f=3&t=14
I consider the Modified Two-Document Hypothesis (M2DH) to be viable, but that's only because it has acknowledged so many errors in the straight (Oxford) 2DH. That Q underlies Mark has to be recognized, and in that case we might as well go all the way and acknowledge that all of Mark is just an abridgment of the Grundschrift (Proto-Matthew) that underlies Matthew. The advantage the M2DH has is that it can account for the contrasts in the Synoptics between passages that have exact parallels and those that do not, IF we accept the presumption that underlying texts existed always as completely Aramaic or completely Greek. Drop that preconception, and the Horizontal Hypothesis can account for both exact and inexact parallels and also MacDonald's evidence that each gospel displays abridgments of passages that are better (more primitive) in other Synoptics. Whether copying or translating, we are in much easier circumstances to present our documents all in one language, yet we don't. How much less convenience for the gospel writers to do so! The M2DH Hypothesis should be better able to contrast between passages that are verbally exact and those that do not, yet Hawkins and Taylor demonstrated a century ago that word use in pericopes is more often in the 40% to 60% range than in the less than 20% and more than 80% ranges. Such middling results make better sense if each gospel is copying/abridging/expanding the same source than if each works independently from separate provisional sources. (Their results would have been more distinct if they had counted consecutive word use, as I do, rather than just the scattered presence of the same words.) A Grundschrift that gathered everything together would yield the homogenized results we see that render source derivation difficult and never final.

The working out of this has only started, but I'm going on vacation for a week to Colorado and won't likely be posting. Some of the details will be like I have already presented on my other thread writing up Eichhorn's textual study of the Grundschrift on Nov. 6th and eliminating the extra step of (M + M2) being abridged separately later than the Grundschrift that Luke used (correcting my October 25 post).

[Adam]

My internet connection is too weak here near Denver to type up what I'm writing, but I am working out my Horizontal Hypothesis in an Occam's Razor simplicity that Luke wrote from the Grundschrift before M was the final addition and that M when added included the Marcan Interpolation that was all that remained in Mark after Mark abridged the completed Grundschrift in its completed Proto-Matthew form that was the immediate basis for both Matthew and Mark. I havn't worked yet on demonstrating (if possible) that Mark abridged M with the same principles that he used for the portions of Mark that parallel Luke. Was there a specific rationale for including this portion of Proto-Matthew, and was it ideological content, its mostly narrative nature, or the writer/copyists favoritism for retaining what he had personally contributed earlier? If I can't demonstrate this, then I am vulnerable in going for an Occam's Razor version that turns the tables on those who like to claim that Occam's Razor favors doing without source texts that are not extant.
Also I'm exploring whether so much of Mark focusses on the last week of Jesus because John Mark was personally aware of only that.

[Adam]

Does this "full editor" work? It seems to have trashed my whole post.

[Adam]

So I typed something here. No submit button could be found. So I clicked on "Post reply". Then nothing posted and I could not get out of "Full Editor". Should have started in Word and copied to here.

[Adam]

Extending my Horizontal Hypothesis farther by Occam’s Razor eliminates even the need for a Proto-Matthew fully in Greek. It came after an interim Grundschrift without M yet, used in creating Luke (but with an in-process text for it a la Eichhorn with minimal Semitisms needed for Luke before L was added with many Aramaisms). Merely adding M (whether in Greek or Aramaic) gave a Proto-Matthew in both languages that was abridged in Mark and rearranged in creating Matthew. The key to this simplification is just acknowledging that the gospel writers produced some documents that were bilingual. This gets around the complications that sabotaged the late 18th Century attempts by Lessing and Eichhorn to establish that there was a Grundschrift underlying all three Synoptic gospels. (Presumably they recognized that each gospel did in addition have its own unique material also.)
The text available to Luke needed translation of the Q1-related material that was still in Aramaic. This would correspond to Eichhorn’s textual line that led to Luke. An interim text in Greek is needed here to explain the lack of Semitisms in the current text of Luke that parallels the other Synoptics. Only L material in Luke is heavy with Semitisms (Hebraic for the Infancy Narrative and Aramaic for the rest).

The translation towards Luke of Q1 material allows identification of it by its contrasts with the translations of Q1 made by Mark in abridging the completed Grundschrift and Matthew while rearranging it.
That still leaves a “completed” Grundschrift with both Aramaic and Greek sections. Had it ever been fully translated to Greek in this form we would probably have an extant version of it today. The nearest approach we have is our Matthew, but that came after a thorough rearrangement. Meanwhile the original would have continued in use by someone? Ancient tradition tells us so, that there was a Gospel according to the Hebrews that was variously translated. It was not necessarily any of our texts above. It has parallels to our Luke, so maybe after M was added (as used by our Matthew and Mark) L was obtained and added. Such a text might neatly have led on (after addition of Johannine material) to the Diatessaron. More likely (or also) various non-canonical material was added that accounts for so many of the passages attributed to the Gospel according to the Hebrews or the Ebionites or the Nazarenes, as used by various Judeo-Christians. Further thought is needed about whether such text or texts would have been all in Aramaic or some might have been mixed Aramaic and Greek like I have developed here. That still remains as an obstacle to claiming that my presentation here incorporates not just the provenance of our Christian texts, but also the traditions about the historical documents.

[I had to process this in Word, copy and paste to here as normal.]

[Peter Kirby]

***crawls back out from under the wall of text***

So, no evidence then?

[Adam]

The Parable of the Tenants is a good case study to prove that Mark did not copy the others nor was it copied by the other Synoptics. Mark 12:1-12 looks derivative, not original. Mt. 21:33-45 at verse 41 attributes to the chief priests and elders what in Mk 12:9 is quoted from Jesus. Clearly neither copied from the other, but from a source that was ambiguous regarding the speaker.

Further, Lk 20:9-19 attributes a different response from those authorities. Jesus gets the above quote, but then (perceiving Jesus’s aim against them) in Lk 20:1b-17a “But when they heard this they said, ‘No—Never!’ But he looked at them and said….” Clearly the source had the authorities saying something. Matthew applied it to the prior words, Luke to the latter. Mark avoided the problem by just in an afterword telling their thought. (Maybe Mark copied, but no the reverse.)

Luke inserts another afterthought (red-lettered in the Holman available to me here in Colorado) verse 18, “Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and if it falls on anyone, it will grind him to powder.” This is absent in Mark, but found in the textually disputed Mt. 21:44. Maybe it was assimilated to Luke’s reading, but maybe done so because of the underlying source. But everyone knows there are innumerable Minor Agreements between Matthew and Luke. Note that in this study here, in contrast, Matthew and Luke radically disagree, and neither can either one of them have been following Mark. Only Mark using Matthew is feasible, but only weakly.
Here’s a line-by-line on the key verses (omitting quotation marks, the cause of the discrepancies):
a. Therefore, what will the owner of the vineyard do to them? [same in all three]
b. He will come and destroy those farmers and give the vineyard to others. [Agreed, but not attributed to Jesus at Mt 21:41]
c. They told him when they heard this, No—Never. [Lk 20:16b]
d. But he looked at them and said, Havn’t you read this scripture, [basically agreed]
The stone that the builders rejected
This has become the cornerstone

With (a) being a question, then (b) can be read as a response from the churchmen, if we assume (c) or the equivalent was in the source text. But Matthew deleted (c) because incorporated already by quoting it as from them in 21:41. Mark deleted it because his reading did not accommodate a reply from them, an abridgment so often seen in both Matthew and Mark, plus it made less harsh the attack on the churchmen. All these readings are feasible from a source-text like I display above, but only Mark-from-Matthew is at all reasonable assuming direct copying.
Edited to add:
Gospel of Thomas includes none of the above in Saying 65, and even in #66 the reading for (d) is "Jesus said, 'Shown me the stone that the builders rejected: that is the keystone.' " There is neither a reference to scripture nor any indication that it ties to #65. See my comments Dec. 4th after I compared with GT in The Five Gospels from the Jesus Seminar (that black-balled GT 66 as not from Jesus).

[Peter Kirby]

I'm going to write something and then edit it. Let's see if people can guess which is original.

(1)

(A) There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home.
(B) There's no place like home.

(2)

(A) If I had a dollar for every synoptic theory, I'd retire.
(B) If I had a dollar for every synoptic theory, I'd be a millionaire.

(3)

(A) The dog said, "On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog." The cat smirked.
(B) The dog said, "On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog." The cat marveled.

...

Point is, and I might not be making it clearly above, there's a bigger problem here that we have to address first, which is how we might even possibly know anything about the lines of dependence. You can't just dive in the deep end and start claiming things. There's more important methodological problems to consider first.