Waxing Careless: Poirier, Derrenbacker and Downing

Abstract

In ‘The Roll, the Codex, the Wax Tablet and the Synoptic Problem’ ( JSNT 35.1), John C. Poirier helpfully draws attention to the use of wax tablets in the Graeco-Roman world of the early Christians. These might seem to have allowed for more flexibility in the collation of literary sources than many (F. Gerald Downing and Robert A. Derrenbacker in particular) have allowed for: e.g., for Luke using Matthew and Mark. Poirier’s critical attention to other scholars, however, leaves a lot of relevant questions not only unanswered but unraised, and a range of these is here outlined.