Sayings Gospel Q
A hypothesised lost collection of sayings reconstructed from quotation overlap.
Q (from German Quelle, 'source') is a hypothetical document proposed to explain material shared by the Gospels of Matthew and Luke but absent from Mark. On the two-source hypothesis, both authors drew on Mark and on Q independently.
Its interest for quotation study is methodological: Q is not a manuscript but a reconstruction, assembled entirely by comparing how two later texts quote a common ancestor. It is the clearest large-scale demonstration of recovering a lost source from its quotations, the same technique that produces the fragments of lost classical works.
The reconstruction is contested. The Farrer hypothesis argues Luke simply used Matthew, dispensing with Q entirely, and even scholars who accept Q disagree about its extent and wording.
Common mistake: quoting Q as though it were an existing document with settled text. Any Q citation is a citation of a scholarly reconstruction — the edition and its editor belong in the reference.
“Q 6:31 — 'Treat people as you would want them to treat you.'”
Keep reading the glossary
Collected quotations from later writers that preserve the words or ideas of an earlier lost author.
The original record of a quote — the book, letter, speech, or recording in which it first appeared.
Latin for 'in the works of' — cites a passage as found in another author's text.
A 'chain' of quoted commentaries on a scripture or text, one author after another.