Two Shipwrecked Gospels—The Logoi of Jesus and Papias's Exposition of Logia About the Lord

MacDonald (New Testament and Christian origins, Claremont School of Theology) reconstructs two lost Gospels. The first is what scholars have come to call Q, and posit as the well from which the synoptic gospels--Mathew, Mark, and John--were drawn. Other scholars have attempted speculative reconstructions using Matthew-Luke agreements against Mark, but MacDonald takes a different route and ends up with a document nearly twice as long, which he calls Q+, or the Logoi of Jesus. The second is a five-volume work by Papias, bishop of Hierapolis, that is known only in later citations. He contends that it was a running commentary on three earlier gospels, among them Mark and Matthew. The Society of Biblical Literature publishes the paperbound edition; Brill publishes the hardbound. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Dennis R. MacDonald is John Wesley Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins, Claremont School of Theology. He is the author or editor of a number of works, including Christianizing Homer (Oxford University Press), The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark, and Does the New Testament Imitate Homer? Four Cases from the Acts of the Apostles (both from Yale University Press).