Abstract:
This article is the first of three on the relationship between the Sayings Gospel Q and the
ancient concept of ‘psychostasia,’ which is the ancient notion that a divine or supernatural
figure weighed people’s souls when judging them. The ultimate goal of all three articles is
to enhance our understanding of Q 6:37–38, as well as of the Q document as a whole. In the
current article, attention is focused on intertexts from the Old Testament, and the occurrences
therein of the word ‘measure’ and the concept of ‘psychostasia’. The implications of these
results for our interpretation of Q 6:37–38 are briefly noted. A second (future) article will focus
on intertexts in apocryphal and pseudepigraphical writings from Second Temple Judaism
dealing with ‘psychostasia’. A third study will ultimately spell out in more comprehensive
detail the implications of the foregoing intertextual investigations on both our understanding
of Q 6:37–38 and our understanding of the Sayings Gospel Q as a whole.
Description:
This article is one of three
representing a reworked
version of aspects from the
PhD dissertation (University
of Pretoria), entitled ‘The
Sayings Gospel Q within
the contexts of the third
and renewed quests for the
historical Jesus: Wisdom
and apocalypticism in the
first century’, with Prof. Dr
Andries G. van Aarde as
supervisor. (http://hdl.handle.net/2263/23913)
