A statement the exact reverse of this occurs in Mk ix, 40, in a different context. The words here are identical in the two Gospels, the order also being the same. It stood in Q.
Each evangelist has supplied his own introduction. Matthew's vs. 40 is probably an interpolation, or at least a late addition. Beginning with Matthew's vs. 41 and Luke's vs. 32 (the order of Luke's verses has been reversed, perhaps by error of a scribe, since no motive appears for the change), there are fifty-three words in Matthew, fifty-five in Luke, and fifty-three of them are identical. The verses are therefore universally assigned to Q.
The correspondence here also is very close; out of sixty-two words in Matthew and fifty-five in Luke, fifty-four are identical. Matthew's surplus of eight words is accounted for by the addition of a clause not found in Luke, and probably a later addition in Matthew; it does not disturb the practical identity thruout the rest of the saying. It evidently stood in Q.
Luke has supplied his own introduction. Matthew has, as parallel to "the eyes that see," "the ears that hear." This may be a later addition in Matthew; or Luke, not caring so much for the Aramaic parallelism as Matthew does, may have omitted it. Luke has "kings" where Matthew has "righteous men"; [Greek: dikaios] is a favorite word with Matthew; on the other hand, Luke's use of "kings" may indicate an apologetic intention upon Luke's part. The saying may be assigned to Q, and the variations charged jointly to Matthew and Luke.
The introductions in the two Gospels are slightly different. After these, fourteen consecutive words are alike, the only deviation being Matthew's use (as always) of [Greek: tôn ouranôn] where Luke has [Greek: tou theou]. The parable stood in Q.
This is another instance of a saying which occurs in Luke's Sermon on the Plain but outside of Matthew's Sermon on the Mount. Matthew has apparently inserted it in the midst of a discourse against the Pharisees, the rest of which he has taken from Mark. The sayings in Matthew and Luke are not identical. If the saying stood in Q, and Matthew removed it from its Lucan connection to its present position in his Gospel, this was certainly a very unusual procedure with him. The saying is given as a "parable" in Luke, and has the brevity of the parables that were given in Q, tho not their usual reference to the kingdom of God. It is hard to think of Matthew, with his fondness for these brief parables, deliberately omitting to call the saying by this name when it was so called in his source. On the whole, however, it seems best to assign the saying to Q, and to charge Matthew with its displacement.