“Make an Effort to Get Loose”: Reconsidering the Redaction of Q 12:58-59

Abstract

This article reflects on Kloppenborg’s significant theory of the stratification of the Sayings Gospel Q. In The Formation of Q, Kloppenborg identifies three redactional layers in the Sayings Gospel Q: the “formative stratum” (or Q¹), the “main redaction” (or Q²), and the “final recension” (or Q³). He ascribes the saying about avoiding the courts in Q 12:58-59 (Matt 5:25-26 // Luke 12:58-59) to the main redaction. As an alternative, it is argued here that this logion belongs to the formative stratum. As part of arguing the latter case, the realistic socio-historical context of the logion in first-century Palestine will be considered with new and unprecedented interest.

Keywords

• redaction
• Q
• socio-historical setting
• court