reply to post by Ryanp5555
I think the discovery of the Q document could be monumental to Christianity.
There is no guarantee that Jesus himself was the author though. Based on research and analysis I've done I think its more likley that the Q document
is the orginal Aramaic or Hebrew Gospel of Matthew. I think that it could very well be the "Hebrew Gospel" used by the Ebionites that the Church
Fathers spoke of.
The Ebionites were a Jewish Christian Sect who rejected Pauline Christianity as an Apostasy. Some believe they were the remnants of the Church of
Jerusalem whose Bishop was James the Brother of Jesus. The church was wiped out during the First Jewish-Roman war.
I think there is a chance that if the Q document is the same as this "Hebrew Gospel" it would paint a very different picture of Pre Pauline
Christianity. It would probably explain why the Church of Jerusalem and later the Ebionites held fast to the circumcision, the Torah, and other Jewish
practices that Paul and early Roman church fathers thought were heretical.
One very important thing it could illuminate on is the family of Jesus. I don't mean illuminate in the way you suggest though,the idea of Jesus and
Mary Magdalene having a family. I mean Jesus' brothers like James and the concept of the Desposyni. For centuries the Greek Orthodox and Roman
Catholic Churches have held that Mary was a perpetual virgin and Jesus had no siblings. There are implications that in contradiction of those
doctrines that the Church of Jerusalem's concept of Apostolic Succession was based on a primacy of Jesus' relatives called the Desposyni.
If there were any documents that equate to these "Hebrew Gospels" or the Q document we may never find them. The Pauline Church actively suppressed
Jewish Christians and when the Romans sacked Jerusalem in the First Jewish-Roman war, they did not differentiate between killing Jews and those who
were members of the Jerusalem Church. Within a few hundred years of the crucifixion of Jesus, the Desposyni and the Ebionites had vanished into
history.
If though there is a chance it could be found, it would be a monumental revelation that could call into question everything from Paul's ministry, the
canonization of the New Testament, the Apostolic Succession of the Roman Church, and the status of the Torah in Christianity.
[edit on 26/6/08 by MikeboydUS]
