Two Shipwrecked Gospels

"Dennis MacDonald is one of the most creative and intellectually innovative New Testament scholars of his generation. In this bold new book, MacDonald dares to re-imagine the textual landscape of early Gospel traditions. Attention is focused on reconstructing two lost Gospel texts, the Logoi of Jesus (the so-called Q source) and Papias' The Exposition of Logia about the Lord. MacDonald develops a new paradigm for reconstructing Q, and in the process generates a text nearly twice as long as traditional reconstructions. This he calls Q+. In relation to Papias' Exposition, MacDonald argues that work was a commentary on three gospel texts - Matthew, Mark and the Logoi of Jesus. Here MacDonald seeks to re-assemble the surviving fragments of Papias' work in their original order and he speculates concerning the material that would have filled the gaps between these fragments. MacDonald's work is brave, challenging, and stimulating. If his ideas prove correct the implication for New Testament scholarship and current understandings of the transmission of the Jesus tradition would be truly revolutionary."--Paul Foster, School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh.