Q

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John S. Kloppenborg Verbin, Excavating Q: The History and Setting of the Sayings Gospel (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press 2000)

In reality Thomas Müntzer, the radical theologician that led the German peasants into senseless slaughter at Frankenhausen was not an idealist who wanted to redeem the masses, but a millennarian prophet who cared more about destroying the old world than about creating a new one (see Cohn's "The Pursuit of the Millennium" for a fascinating review of Müntzer in the context of a very old tradition of religious radicals that actually reaches to our very day), whose rethoric of bloody extermination of opponents strikes a reader as very similar to that of Stalinists in the show trials of the 1930s. And it is surely ridiculous to attribute the failure of the Münster Anabaptists not to sectarian politics but to manipulation by popish agent-provocateurs as appears in this book. This is a common accusation among radical left groups, who are inclined to impute their inability to get along and work together to divisive actions by obscure class-enemies or imperialists. Whoever tries to find their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. Love your enemies, (28) and pray for those who persecute you. (35) You'll become children of your Father, who makes the sun rise on those who are evil and those who are good, and sends rain on those who are just and those who are unjust. Many will come from east and west and dine (28) with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in God's reign, but you'll be thrown out into the outer darkness, where there'll be weeping and grinding of teeth. (30) Those who are last will be first, and those who are first will be last. This is a wonderful book. It was written for me. I first became fascinated with the Radical egalitarian movements of the 1500s when I read Norman Cohn's "The Pursuit of the Millennium" - it appealed to the ardent anarcho-Christian-socialist I was then. The Reformation and the Renaissance went hand in hand with the striving foBlessed are you when they criticize you, persecute you, and spread lies about you because of the Son of Humanity. (23) Rejoice and be glad, because your heavenly reward is great; for that's how they persecuted the prophets before you. Un romanzo mai noioso, avvincente, sospeso a capitoli rapidi eppure densi, che mette sempre in moto il cervello.

This leads to the message of the book. It's authored by an anonymous Italian collective named Luther Blissett. Even before reading the book my assumption was that they want to convey that things can change on a broad level. The reformation of the church in the 16th century is a symbol for a possible change of society in the 21st century, which the authors seem to deem necessary. When the power of the Fuggers is introduced,this message becomes even clearer. It's a plea against globalization today. I would assume that the authors joined the Occupy movement later. The above quote from A.T. Robertson, one of the foremost Greek scholars of the 20th century, is a good reflection of the position of many scholars. It may be that there was a common source for Matthew and Luke, either Q or Mark, or a combination of both. If Q is true, are the gospels inspired? In fact, the hagiographic presentation of Müntzer is a dead giveaway of where this book is coming from: East German history presented this enemy of both Pope and Luther as a proto-Marxist, and in fact the largest painting in the world refers to Müntzer at the battle of Frankenhausen and is titled "Bourgeouis Revolution in Germany", painted by Werner Tübke, and commissioned by the East German leadership (400 feet long, 45 feet high, and still around, in its special built-to-purpose museum) prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall. The analogy between radical reformers and XX century Marxist revolutionaries is not subtly evinced, and it is a pity, for subtleness would have had more impact on the readers. This is one of the most challenging books I've read and I vacillated between loving and hating it. So to be fair, I'd really like to give this 3.5 stars but it seemed worthy of rounding up, rather than down.Una visione dal basso della storia, dal punto di vista di quelli che furono sempre sottomessi, con un occhio rivolto verso Marx, Gramsci.