Thu Apr 11 00:18:39 1996

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Date: Thu, 11 Apr 1996 00:15:16 -0400 (EDT)
From: Maurice Robinson 
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Subject: Re: Synoptic source criticism
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On Tue, 9 Apr 1996, Stephen C Carlson wrote:

> Maurice Robinson wrote:

> >The modern critical texts will have a tendency to claim more
> >harmonizations of Mark to Matthew, which are attributed to a presumption 
> >of Markan priority as well as to the fact that Matthew was the most 
> >popular gospel in the early church.  The real reflection of the Markan 
> >hypothesis would be seen in their internal evidence decision to follow a 
> >non-Matthean or non-Lukan reading in Mark whenever the choice presents 
> >itself.
 
> If this is true, then I don't see why Markan priority (as opposed
> to harmonizing tendencies) would be a good reason.  If we *knew* that
> Mark was first, how does that help us establish which competing claim
> to the text of Mark is stronger?  What Matthew may or may not have
> changed is not relevant, because we don't know if Matthew followed or
> departed from Mark in the first place.

Which from my perspective is a good reason not to make too much of either
Matthean or Markan priority principles as I approach the text.  Presumed
literary dependence can be a bane rather than a blessing, as the
contradictory claims of various two-source scholars come to the forefront. 

Those who postulate a Mk + Q source for both Mt and Lk presumably will
view certain variants in light of their hypothesis to the exclusion of
others, and their text-critical decisions at certain points will 
therefore reflect those underlying hypotheses.


_________________________________________________________________________
Maurice A. Robinson, Ph.D.           Assoc. Prof./Greek and New Testament
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary     Wake Forest, North Carolina
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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