Recovering Jewish-Christian Sects and Gospels (Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae)

jewish-christian gospels recovered 

study of Jewish-Christian gospel fragments is tied with theories that
seek to challenge the Two Document Hypothesis, comparison with Q
becomes irrelevant.^118 Second, in the GH, it is presumed that theGospel
of the Hebrewswas totally different from the synoptic gospels. Since Q sits
tightly at the core of the synoptic tradition, there does not seem to be very
much to be discussed, at least as far literary dependence is concerned, or
a sort of trajectory between Q and theGospel of the Hebrews.
Nonetheless, although the relationship between Q and other Jewish-
Christian gospels has not been among the most popular topics of schol-
arly discussion during the past decades, some scholars have occasionally
drawn attention to the question. James M. Robinson has, in several con-
nections, referred to the Ebionites or the Nazarenes as holdouts from the
Q community who refused to become absorbed into the gentile Chris-
tian church through Matthew’s gospel. He has also observed similari-
ties between the feminine Wisdom imagery of Q and theGospel of the
HebrewswheretheHolySpiritappearsasJesus’mother.^119
Notably, these observations and suggestions are made on the basis
of the widely accepted GH which categorically rules out any literary
dependence between theGospel of the Hebrewsand synoptic materials.
Therefore, it is understandable that they have not evoked any further dis-
cussion about a possible socio-cultural relationship between the Q people
and the Jewish Christians who composed and transmitted theGospel of
the Hebrews. The NGH, for which I am arguing in this volume, changes
the situation in some important respects. It attributes to theGospel of
the Hebrewsnot just fragments that have a clear interest in Wisdom tra-
ditions but also sayings that are paralleled in synoptic gospels. Some of
them can also be located in Q-sections.
In contrast to earlier speculations which connect theGospel of the
Hebrewsto an Aramaic “Urgospel,” I have not found any evidence to
suggest that theGospel of the Hebrewsmight be pre-synoptic. On the
contrary, many of the fragments that are attributed to theGospel of
the Hebrewsin the NGH clearly depend on synoptic material. Thus,
if it is possible to find the same kind of socio-cultural and theological
features in theGospel of the Hebrewsthat we can also see in Q, then the
Gospel of the Hebrewsmight represent a case of post-synoptic reediting
of the synoptic material from the viewpoint of Q’s distinctive theology.
Could theGospel of the Hebrewshave been composed and edited by

(^118) A recent example of this approach is Edwards .
(^119) Robinson , , , , .