The long speech against the scribes and Pharisees in Matt, xxiii has a short parallel in Mk. xii. 38–40 and Luke xx. 45–7, as well as a longer parallel in Lk. xi. The material in Lk. xi is usually classified as ‘Q’ material (on the 2DH), but attention here will be concentrated on the shorter parallels in Mark and Lk. xx, with only passing reference to Lk. xi. According to the GH, Luke derived his version in xx. 46f. from Matt, xxiii. 5–7, and Mark then used Luke for his account. This is claimed by Farmer with additional reasons, and his detailed explanations deserve careful consideration. Although use by Mark of Matthew is theoretically possible on the GH, this is rendered unlikely by the extremely close verbal agreement between Mark and Luke.

Farmer's first claim concerns Luke's choice of the material from Matt, xxiii. ‘Having already utilized much of this material (or material parallel to it) back in 11: 39–52 of his Gospel, Luke here only took two verses from a section he had previously omitted, i.e. he took verses 6 and 7 from Matt. 23: 5–7.’ However, this glosses over some of the problems of these texts, since Luke has not omitted this material, but has already used some of it in the earlier context: Lk. xi. 43 is closely parallel to Matt, xxiii. 6, and thus forms a doublet with Lk. xx. 46.