Q (Quelle, “source”) is the symbol used to denote the main documentary source, upon which the First and Third Evangelists drew, in addition to St. Mark's Gospel. As regards its character, there is difference of opinion. Some scholars identify it with the Matthaean Logia of which Papias speaks; others regard the latter as an independent collection of Messianic proof-texts. By some it is thought to have been a Gospel; by others it is looked upon as a collection of the Sayings of Jesus, with a certain element of narrative. Wellhausen dates it later than Mk., but most scholars think that it is earlier, and date it from the sixties and in some cases from the fifties.5

As regards the Virgin Birth, it is almost certain that Q did not contain the tradition. Harnack thinks that Q's narrative of the Baptism, with its use of Ps. ii. 7, “excludes all ideas of pre-existence and miraculous birth” (Sayings of Jesus, p. 235), and J. M. Thompson, who quotes this opinion, finds in the Baptist's question, “Art thou he that cometh?”,6 a passage which it is “hard to reconcile ... with Lk.'s story of the Birth, as generally interpreted” (Miracles, p. 140). What is more important than either of these arguments, is the fact that neither the First nor the Third Evangelist drew a Virgin Birth tradition from Q. The presumption is that Q was silent as regards the Virgin Birth,7 but in view of the fact that it probably contained only a small element of narrative, we ought not to say more.8