In yesterday’s post, when talking about the one-time existence of Q, I indicated that scholars have long recognized that there must be some kind of literary relationship among Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the Synoptic Gospels, since they have so many similarities: they tell many of the same stories, often in the same sequence, and sometimes – lots of times – in the very same words.  That is to say, someone must be copying someone else, or they are all using the same written sources.

Some of my students have trouble seeing that if two documents are word-for-word the same, one must be copying the other (or they both are copying a third source).  Older adults don’t seem to have any problem seeing that, right off the bat.  But younger adults need to be convinced.  And so I do a little experiment with them that more or less proves it.  I do this every year in my New Testament class, which normally has 200-300 students in it.

I come to class a minute or two late to make sure everyone is there, and then I start fiddling around – I take off my jacket, take my books out of my bag, check the computer hook up, take a drink, put my coat back on, rummage around some more in my bag, and so on.  Students wonder why I’m not starting the lecture.   And then I tell them that I want everyone to take out a pen and a piece of paper.  They think I’m going to be giving them a pop quiz.  Nope.   I ask everyone in the class to write down everything they’ve seen me do since I came into the room.

After three or four minutes…

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