The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1912-05-19
THE DOCUMENT 90"

, Of the article is that there is imbedded
in the gospels OF Matthew and Luke
the oldest source of authority, and that
this source is detachable from these
gospels themselves. The 80" is from
the German word "Quelle,' meaning
" source Mr.. Gilbert treats the dis.
covery OF this imbedded document as
something new. and of an Importance
that cannot be easily overestimated
The idea is that the document "Q' was
used by the writer of Matthew, and
also by the writer of Luke, each taking
from that document those parts of 1t
that seemed best adapted TO his nara
tion. The theory is that the Book OF
Mark was contenporaneous with 20,
or substantially so, but that where
there is Il difference between Mark and
go" then go" is to be preferred.
This document "Q' is supposed to
be composed altogether Of the sayings
Of tho Lord, something Of the same or
der as n document with that title dis
covered in Egypt few years ago. But
that Egyptian document would be un-
doubtedly later production, and Of
| nothing like the authenticity or author
| ity of the "Q' of Matthew and Luke.
The greatest utterance in this docu-
ment fQ' OF q personal nature is: Il
thank thee, O Father, Lord Of heaven
and earth, that thou didst hide these
things from the wise and understand
ing, and didst reveal them unto babes:
yea, Father, for so it was well-pleasing
in thy sight All things have been de-
livered unto me of my Father: and no
one knoweth the Son save the Father;
neither doth any know the Father save
the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son
willeth to reveal him
Other sayings of the Lord in this
lmbcdded document "Q' are quoted,
and these sayings are supposed to be
the most ancient of the Christian writ
ings. The author very curiously seems
to think it rather singular that the
document 90" says nothing OF the
rising of Jesus from the grave, but one
would hardly expect that collection
of merely the saysings of the Lord
birth life, death, and resurrection. As
the supreme teacher, his savings were
naturally held TO be of the highest pos
sible Importance. The narration Of his
personal life would necessarily be sub
ordinate in the mind Of the collector of
those savings, and in fact he would
not be supposed to have in view any
biography or narration of Incidents.
His purpose would be TO quote the
great sayings as the authoritative word
of the Lord, binding upon all. leaving
the narration TO be comnleted by those
of later time.
1t is curious to see that Mr.. Gilbert
considers that the church has gone far
in her doctrine of Christ and his work
from the teaching of the Master as
contained in this oldest collection of
his word; and he considers that there
is marked let t-down from the recorded
words of Jesus in this document 80. ~
in the various explanations Of Jesus
and his work which abound even in
the earliest Of our gospel narratives,
where ''we pass at once into a differ
ent sphere of thought - This, how
ever, seems TO us to be rather on the
order Of quibbling. because the say
inas of the Lord as imbedded in the
gospels are, in fact, the natural express
sions that the variations lead up to-
aud in no way does the narrator lower
his standard or belittle the great words
which he quotes, either from "Qn or
from Mark, or from any other source.
1t is perhaps not difficult for schoI-
ars to do such work as this. and trace
and build MP n document Of this sort
Possibly, il may have good foundation
in the critical examination Of the text;
but as a matter Of fact, when we re.
call the different efforts at the con
struction Of cryptograms, imbedded
keys and the like in various classical
works, one is naturally inclined to look
with somewhat of skepticism upon such
. discoveries as this. II is possible
OF course, that the authenticity Of such
. document as go" might be criti-
cslly established; indeed, the like has
been done before, but we should con-
slider it unlikely; and with the as.
sumption that there was such docu-
ment from which the gospel writers
quoted and fitted into their narratives,
this for the purpose of showing that
tine narrative itself is vastly in
ferior to the sayings. then one
is inclined to protest and TO
say that the double assumption is need.
less; first, that there Is such docu-
ment, and second. that IL is so immeas-
urably superior 10 the narrative in
which it is imbedded. Naturally, the
authentic savings of the Lord are held
in the Christian world to be the su-
premo authority; but when il is as
sumed that these sayings were first
written, separately and that the gospel
narratives carry these in detached and