Q gospel
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The Q gospel (from the German Quelle, meaning "source") is a hypothesised collection of Jesus' sayings, and generally accepted to be one of two major sources for the narrative of the synoptic Gospels of the New Testament (the other being an early version of the Gospel of Mark). Its existence has been inferred from the common material (mostly quotes from Jesus) in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, that is not found in Mark.
Theologian Burton Mack, an emeritus professor of early Christianity at Claremont School of Theology in Claremont, California, has written extensively on the subject, and included a reconstruction of Q in his book The Lost Gospel. [1] However, not all biblical scholars accept the existence of Q; a small minority of them still assume that Matthew, not Mark as generally accepted, was the first Gospel written, known as the Augustinian hypothesis[wp] after early proponent Augustine of Hippo.
The main challenger to the two-source hypothesis, is variously known as Farrer, Farrer-Goulder, or Farrer-Gouldner-Goodacre hypothesis[wp] in which Matthew relies on Mark and the common material in Luke and Matthew stems from Luke relying on Mark and Matthew. Some apologists favour Q as it provides them with an "extra source" and not being constrained by any actual surviving versions of Q, apologists can claim that it was a very early eye witness account. Particularly odd is the acceptance of Q among apologists who adhere to the "traditional authorship" dogma (i.e. the apostle Matthew really wrote the Gospel of Matthew). The "traditional authorship" scenario hardly needs a Q in the first place, because if the gospels really were contemporary eye witness accounts, then the common material in Matthew and Luke could more plausibly be explained by the authors witnessing the same events and/or being in contact with each other while writing their gospels.