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pp.vii 275, “When Matthew and Luke wrote their gospels, modern scholarship suspects, they began with two sources to which they added their own material: the Gospel of Mark and a second source called “Q” (from Quelle , or “source” in German). Mack (New Testament, School of Theology at Claremont) identifies from within the gospels themselves what a Q document might have looked like. Deducing three stages of an emergent text, he isolates what may be the earliest version of Jesus’ words and their impact on the community before an organized “church” adapted them to its own purposes. Deftly written, this book reads like a good mystery, saving the payoff of Q’s impact on Christianity for its final chapters. However, Mack mutes the fact that Q is a hypothesis, and not a universally accepted one, which dilutes the persuasiveness of the book.” paperback edition