The Encyclopedia of World Religions

Quakers S 367

from his baptism to his crucifixion in much the same way. In fact, they repeat many of the same words, phrases, and sentences. That raises the synoptic problem: How can these similarities be explained? The most common explanation is that Mat thew and Luke both used the Gospel of Mark as their basis; the Gospel of Mark is simpler and appears to be older. But Matthew and Luke also contain a large number of sayings of Jesus that are not in Mark. Because Matthew and Luke use these sayings in very different ways, many scholars pre fer to think that they used a common source rather than, say, that Luke used Matthew as a source. They call that source “Q.” No one has ever seen Q, but in the 1940s another book, the Gospel of T HOMAS , was dis covered that contains only sayings of Jesus. That discovery made the Q hypothesis more plausible. Some scholars have even tried to use the sayings that Q would have contained to reconstruct the “Q community,” that is, the group of early Christians who would have used and preserved these sayings of Jesus. Further reading: Mark Goodacre and Nicholas Perrin, eds. Questioning Q: A Multidimensional Critique (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2004); Burton L. Mack, The Lost Gospel: The Book of Q and Christian Origins (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993); James M. Robinson, ed., The Sayings of Jesus: The Sayings Gospel Q in English (Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 2002). Quakers Members of a Christian group that is more properly known as the Society of Friends. Traditionally Quakers do not rely on SCRIPTURE or church teachings. They rely on the Inward Light of G OD . The Society of Friends was organized in Eng land in the 1650s. The name Quaker comes from the way in which early members of the society reacted to the experience of God’s Light. They met outdoors in groups and waited for God’s

George Fox, the preacher considered to be the founder of the Society of Friends (Library of Congress)

Light to illumine their hearts; when it did, they trembled. The Friends met under the inspiration of a preacher named George Fox (1624–91). He is considered to be the founder of the movement. Because Quakers believed that God stirred in every human heart, they had little use for the ordinary trappings of C HRISTIANITY : scriptures, CREEDS , doctrines, BAPTISM , the LITURGY , ordained ministers. They also rejected the then common practice of an established religion, that is, a reli gion that the government legally recognized. In the spirit of J ESUS ’ teachings, they dressed plainly. They also refused to take oaths, bear arms, or use