Morton, A. Q.

A.Q. Morton is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He is best known, perhaps, for his pioneering work in bringing the academy face-to-face with the computer revolution (Christianity in the Computer Age, 1964). He has also written major works on the Gospels, Acts, and Paul (The Structure of the Fourth Gospel, 1961; The Genesis of John, 1980; The Structure of Luke-Acts, 1964; Paul, The Man and the Myth, 1966); and The Making of Mark (Mellen, 1996).

Gathering of the Gospels From Papyrus to Printout

1997 0-7734-2427-X
This book examines the planning and production of the original copies of the four gospels and Acts. It provides much new information about these books and the relations between them. The progression from first to last is shown to be a logical sequence of addition and expansion.

Making of Mark

1996 0-7734-2393-1
This seminal work in New Testament scholarship is the culmination of forty years study by A. Q. Morton into authorship attribution. During this time his principal aim has been to establish objectively (i.e., by scientific means) exactly what is the nature of the canonical texts which form the basis of the New Testament - the four Gospels, the Epistles, and Revelations - and also to discover how they came into being. The Making of Mark addresses the historical question of its form - was it produced on a roll or a codex? The answer, suggests Morton, is found in numerical regularity that comprises the divisions within the book. Morton inquires regarding the role of the scribe in the ancient world. What influence did the Jewish-Roman War have upon the production of the book? Morton's hypothesis is that Mark was a book subject to the current means of book production and the circumstances of its time. This makes sense of what has often puzzled earlier commentators. Not only is Morton able to attribute the various sequences of sentences in the four quarters of the Mark codex, he is able to show how 'the medium is the message': that is, how the form of Mark, with its twenty different contributors (according to cusum) governs what is included and where it is inserted: such decisions depend on the form of the book.