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The New Testament
Querying the QM Thesis

Matthew 13:24-35/Mark 4:30-2/Lucan parallels

J. P. Holding

Matthew 13:24-35 represents another collection of topical teachings, explaining what the kingdom of heaven (in Matthew, a circomlocution for "kingdom of God" that reflects an original Jewish setting). There are no parallels to 24-30 (the tares and the wheat) or the leaven (33) and the ending verses (34-35) round out the collection. Only the mustard seed analogy (31-32) is paralleled anywhere (Mark 4:30-2, Luke 13:18-19). Since none of the three writers put this parable in the same order, this is a good example of why order does not tell us much of anything about who wrote first. As for a comparison:

Matthew Another parable he-set-before them saying Like is the kingdom of heaven grain mustard which taking man sowed in the field of-him which lesser truly is all of seeds when but it-is-grown greater the plants is and becomes tree so-that come the birds of heaven and roost in the branches of it.
Mark And he said To-what may-we-compare the kingdom of God? Or in what parable may-we-compare it? As-to a grain mustard which when it-is-sown on the earth lesser than-all the seeds it-is of those on the earth. And when it-is-sown it-comes-up and becomes all the plants greater-than and makes branches great so as to-be-able under the shade of-it the birds of heaven to roost.
Luke he said And To-what like is the kingdom of God? And to what may-I-compare it? like it-is a grain mustard which taking man threw into a garden of-himself and it-grew and it-became into tree great and the birds of heaven roosted in the branches of it.

Luke has deleted the note about the smallness of the seed, and Matthew has deleted the initial question since it is pointless didactically; no one needs the questions to learn from, especially since he has already collected them all under "this is what the kingdom is like" headings. However, it can hardly be coincidental that Luke and Matthew use "branches" and not "shade" from Mark. Rather than hypothesize with phantom documents like Q, why not say it is the original Ur-Matthew line which Peter, using the freedom of oral variation, changed?

Ur-Matthew Reconstruction

To-what like is the kingdom of God? And to what may-I-compare it? like it-is a grain mustard which taking man threw into a field of-him which lesser truly is all of seeds when but it-is-grown greater the plants is becomes into tree great and the birds of heaven roost in the branches of it.

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