There is one thing I know about Q. It comes between P and R. Yet that supposititious “source” (Q for German Quelle), of no documentary evidence, still reigns supreme in textual criticism of the Gospels.There is nothing comparable for any pre-modern text I know. It persists not because it enlightens anything, but because of habit or scholarly pride, and because there can be no evidence for its non-existence. It would be like the “ether” of old, except that there were ways to search for ether, but no ways to search for Q.
A friend of mine, a federal magistrate judge, told me of how he had once started reading one of the classics of textual criticism of the Gospels. He said he gave it up once he realized the author knew nothing about eyewitness testimony.
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