Editing Two-source hypothesis (section)

== Overview of the hypothesis ==

The 2SH attempts to solve the synoptic problem by advancing two propositions, Marcan priority to explain the triple tradition, and the existence of a lost [[Q document]] to solve the double tradition. In summary, the two-source hypothesis proposes that Matthew and Luke used Mark for its narrative material as well as for the basic structural outline of chronology of Jesus' life; and that Matthew and Luke use a second source, Q (from German [[Quelle document|Quelle]], "source"), not extant, for the sayings (logia) found in both of them but not in Mark.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/topic/biblical-literature/The-two-and-four-source-hypotheses#ref598087 Encyclopædia Britannica]</ref>

=== Marcan priority ===
{{Main|Marcan priority}}
The 2SH explains the features of the triple tradition by proposing that both Matthew and Luke used Mark as a source. Mark appears more 'primitive': his diction and grammar are less literary than Matthew and Luke, his language is more prone to redundancy and obscurity, his [[Christology]] is less supernatural, and he makes more frequent use of [[Aramaic of Jesus|Aramaic]]. The more sophisticated versions of Mark's pericopes in Matthew and Luke must be either the result of those two "cleaning up" Mark, if his is the first gospel, or of Mark "dumbing down" Matthew and/or Luke, if he was later. Critics regard the first explanation as the more likely. On a more specific level, Marcan priority seems to be indicated due to instances where Matthew and Luke apparently omit explanatory material from Mark, where Matthew adds his own theological emphases to Mark's stories, and in the uneven distribution of Mark's stylistic features in Matthew.<ref name="synop">{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20041119143510/http://www.hypotyposeis.org/synoptic-problem/2004/09/two-source-hypothesis.html "The Two-Source Hypothesis", Synoptic Problem Website]}}</ref>

=== The existence of Q ===
{{Main|Q source}}
The 2SH explains the double tradition by postulating the existence of a lost "sayings of Jesus" document known as Q, from the German ''Quelle'', "source". It is this, rather than Marcan priority, which forms the distinctive feature of the 2SH as against rival theories. The existence of Q follows from the conclusion that, as Luke and Matthew are independent of Mark in the double tradition, the connection between them must be explained by their joint but independent use of a missing source or sources. (That they used Q independently of each other follows from the fact that they frequently differ quite widely in their use of this source).<ref name="synop"/>