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“Think of the Lilies” and Prov 6:6–11

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

John N. Jones
John N. Jones
Affiliation:
Yale University
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Extract

Among the best-known of Jesus sayings is the “worry” saying of Q (Luke 12:22–31):

“Therefore,” [Jesus] said to his disciples, “I bid you put away anxious thoughts about food to keep you alive and clothes to cover your body. Life is more than food, the body more than clothes. Think of the ravens: they neither sow nor reap; they have no storehouse or barn; yet God feeds them. You are worth far more than the birds! Is there a man among you who by anxious thought can add a foot to his height? If, then, you cannot do even a very little thing, why are you anxious about the rest?

Type
Notes and Observations
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 88 , Issue 1 , January 1995 , pp. 175 - 177
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1995

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References

1 The saying also appears in Matt 6:25–34. Whatever the precise form of Matthew's source material, Matthew's original contribution to the saying is minimal. See Koester, Helmut, Ancient Christian Gospels: Their History and Development (London: S.C.M. and Philadelphia: Trinity, 1990) 326–27Google Scholar. I follow Mack, Burton L. (The Lost Gospel: The Book of Q and Christian Origins [San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1993] 95Google Scholar) in treating the passage as a single saying. For an additional view, see Bultmann, Rudolf, History of the Synoptic Tradition (Oxford: Blackwell, 1968) 88Google Scholar. Bultmann regards Luke 12:25 as an independent saying and suggests that Luke 12:26 and 28–30 may have originated separately as well.

2 All scripture quotations are from the New English Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976).

3 Carlston, Charles E., “Wisdom and Eschatology in Q,” in Delobel, Joël, ed., Logia: Les paroles de Jésus: Mémorial Joseph Coppens (BETL 59; Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1982) 111Google Scholar. At the same time, Carlston insists on the centrality of the wisdom tradition for interpreting Q, arguing, for instance, for a close connection between the δόξα (“glory, splendor”) of Luke 12:27 and “the ‘riches and honor’ which are given [Solomon] as a reward for his request for wisdom in the OT text” (p. 107 n. 41).