Matt 7:16-20	Luke 6:43-45	Thom 45
		1 Jesus said:
16 "You'll know who they are
by what they produce.
Since when do people	[see Luke 6:44 below]
pick grapes		"Grapes
		are not harvested
from thorns		from thorn trees,
or figs		nor are figs gathered
from thistles?		from thistles,
		for they yield
		no fruit.
17 Every healthy tree
produces choice fruit,
but the rotten tree
produces spoiled fruit.
18 A healthy tree	43 "A choice tree
cannot produce	does not produce
spoiled fruit,	rotten fruit,
any more than	any more than
a rotten tree	a rotten tree
can produce choice fruit.	produces choice fruit;
19 Every tree
that does not produce
choice fruit
gets cut down
and tossed into the fire.
20 Remember,
you'll know who they are
by what they produce."
Matt 12:33-35
33 "If you make
the tree choice,
its fruit will be choice;
if you make the tree rotten,
its fruit will be rotten.
After all, the tree	44 for each tree
is known by its fruit.	is known by its fruit.
[see Matt 7:16 above]	Figs are not gathered	[see Thom 45:1 above]
	from thorns,
	nor are grapes picked
	from brambles.
34 You spawn of Satan,
how can your speech
be good
if you are evil?
[see Matt 12:35 below]	45 The good person	2 Good persons
	produces good	produce good
	from the fund of good	from what they've
	in the heart,	stored up;
	and the evil person	3 bad persons
	produces evil from	produce evil from
	the evil	the wickedness
	within.	they've stored up
		in their hearts, and
		say evil things.
As you know,	As you know,	For
the mouth gives voice	the mouth gives voice	from the overflow
to what the heart	to what the heart	of the heart
is full of.	is full of."
		comes evil."
35 The good person	[see Luke 6:35a above]	[see Thom 45:2 above]
produces good things
out of a fund of good;
and the evil person
produces evil things
out of a fund of evil."

Form

This collection of gnomes (so-called from the Greek word for "thought," not the legendary woodland creatures) stresses continuity between cause and effect. Each sentence states a general truth that can stand on its own. The statements are short and simple observations of fact.  Though details may vary, the structure of each thought stays constant whatever the order. The differences between Matthew, Luke and Thomas show that the elements could easily be arranged to suit an editor.

Content

Luke has five gnomes, three about fruit the rest about other types of produce. The cluster in Matt 7 is more unified, containing only statements about fruit and plants. Here there are four thoughts but six statements, two being repeated paraphrases of Luke's opening pair. The comment on the fate of unfruitful trees (Matt 7:19) is from elsewhere in Q where it is credited to John the Baptist (see Q cluster 1 above ). Later Matthew presents a similar cluster which is closer to Luke's, containing four of his five sayings. Thomas knows three of these gnomes, but only one about fruit. His cluster is simpler and, thus, possibly earlier than those in either Luke or Matthew.

Attribution

Fruit from trees	%	Red	Pink	Grey	Black	WA	Print
Luke 6:43 Matt 7:17-18 Matt 12:33a		15 15 15	31 31 31	23 23 23	31 31 31	40 40 40	grey grey grey
Tree known by fruit
Luke 6:44a Matt 12:33b Matt 7:16a Matt 7:20		14 14 7 7	29 29 29 29	0 0 7 7	57 57 50 50	33 33 29 29	grey grey grey grey
Fruit from thorns
Luke 6:44b Matt 7:16b Thom 45:1a Thom 45:1b		8 42 42 0	69 36 36 36	8 7 7 7	15 14 14 57	55 69 69 26	pink pink pink grey
Tree Cut Down
Matt 7:19		0	0	0	100	00	black

The Jesus seminar reviewed these sayings twice. Both of Matthew's groups have obviously been revised more than those in Luke and Thomas.  But viewed separately, some of Matthew's sayings compare favorably with those in Luke or Thomas. The three that are common to Thomas and Q at least come from early tradition.

There is little doubt that the quip about thorns is traceable to Jesus.  Like other genuine Jesus sayings, it relies on exaggerated concrete images to dramatize a point that is left unexplained. Framed as a question (Matt 7:16b), this comment is particularly provocative and almost absurd. It sounds like a witty retort. Luke and Thomas present the thought more soberly as a common sense observation, with Thomas adding an explanation.

Matt 7:19 is clear evidence that catchword and theme outweighed logic and authorship in creating these clusters. Matthew alone credits Jesus with echoing this pronouncement about the dire fate of unfruitful trees, that Q attributed to John the Baptist:

"Even now the axe is aimed at the root of the trees.
So every tree not producing choice fruit gets cut down and tossed into the fire."
-- Luke 3:9//Matt 3:10

The idea of cutting down barren fruit trees is appropriate in Q's summary of John the Baptist's warnings of impending judgment, but it is totally inappropriate here in a collection of Jesus sayings that stress God's tolerance and rebuke those who presume to correct others. So it is unlikely to have been part of the Sermon in Q.  Thus, the Fellows were unanimous in rejecting it as an authentic Jesus saying.

The other gnomes also use concrete images, but are less vivid and provocative.  They appeal to common observation rather than paradox and present no surprises.  Some Fellows think Jesus could have used such proverbial wisdom, even if he did not create it.  Others, however, consider sayings that support  judging a source by its produce as incompatible with genuine Jesus sayings that stress overlooking flaws in others. At any rate, it is impossible to show that these prosaic pronouncements came from the mind of Jesus himself rather than someone trying to turn his quip about fruit from thorns into a general principle. So grey is an appropriate evaluation.

Goods from storehouse	%	Red	Pink	Grey	Black	WA	Print
Luke 6:45a Matt 12:35 Thom 45:2		14 14 14	21 21 21	7 7 7	57 57 57	31 31 31	grey grey grey
Heart and mouth
Luke 6:45b Matt 12:34 Thom 45:3		7 7 7	14 14 14	21 21 21	57 57 57	24 24 24	black black black

The two other sayings in this cluster also stress a strict correlation between the character of a source and what it produces. But their simplistic ethical dualism of good vs. evil struck most Fellows as uncharacteristic of the Jesus who urged followers to imitate God in treating good and bad alike (Matt 5:45//Luke 6:35).

Again, Matthew 12:34 is alone in portraying Jesus as echoing words that Q credited to John the Baptist in haranguing his audience:

"You spawn of Satan!... " (lit.: "serpents' brood")
--Matt 3:7//Luke 3:7

While such a thorny slur fits well in John's warning the unbaptized of impending doom, it has no place in Q's complex of sayings aimed at convincing Jesus' followers to tolerate imperfections in others.

* For more on this pericope see this author's essay "Known by their Fruit."