No one can question that the first three Gospels have a lot in common. There are several ways to look at this. They are called the Synoptic Gospels because Matthew-Mark-Luke are seen together (syn - together) (optic - seen).
The historical-critical liberals saw Mark as the original - with no proof, of course. But, given that assumption, where did all the sayings come from? The sermons in Matthew in Luke are not in Mark.
Someone came up with the concept of Q. What does that stand for? Like many things in theology, the origin is lost in the mist of time or the dust of library shelves. Perhaps some book explained it perfectly once, but like the Greek-Latin grammar book I once found at the Augustana Library, no one checked it out.
Soon everyone decided Q stood for Quelle, German for source. The problem is the same as the "Aramaic original" of the Gospels. No one has found a Q document.
The debate about Q will continue, and no one will agree completely. As Nils A. Dahl said, "No one really knows."
But, for some reason, Q is in the news a lot now - and all over YouTube as well.
