I am familiar with the Q-source hypothesis.
I've also read about the Greek epic theory, but to be honest, isn't it a bit on the short side? And I thought Greek epics were written in poetry not prose.
Not sure what you mean by 'on the short side' -
The template goes more or less like this:
The birth of a divine hero is supernaturally predicted, and he is conceived in a supernatural way. As an infant, he escapes attempts to kill him. As a child, he shows precocious wisdom. As a young man, he is given a mission. He defeats monsters and/or demons (however defined) and is hailed as a king. His success is short lived--he is betrayed, falls out of favor, and is executed, often on a hilltop. Finally, he is vindicated after his death and taken up to the heavens (usually) to join the gods.
Countless myths tell this story in various cultures throughout time with slight variations. It's sort of the "Mythic Hero Archetype"
The three synoptic Gospels, as well as the so-called Q Gospel all seem to follow this template to a tee in the telling of the “Jesus Story”.
Conversely, if one strips down the Odyssey and Iliad to their bare bones, down to their template form, the template is virtually identical to the synoptic Gospels.
Understand that I am not suggesting similarity between Homer’s works and the Gospels, but rather that the same template (as summarized further above) was used for both – big difference; the stories are obviously not the same, but the underlying literary form/template is.
The original author(s) of Mark and possibly the Q Gospel would have been individuals intimately familiar with Greek literature with respect to the concept of the “prose epic” hero story and its literary form/template.
They would have been writing exclusively for a Greek audience who were very familiar with this type of epic story and would have easily recognized it as such. The apostles were trying to spread the ‘Good News’ and what better way to do it than in a style that their audience was very familiar with. The story of Jesus was told in the form and style of a Greek “hero epic” to a Greek audience.
As sort of an interesting aside, the first half of the Odyssey and Mark’s Gospel deal with adventures at sea and places near the sea where boats/ships are prominent.
The fact that this same template was used as a vehicle for telling the story of Jesus’s life and message, I don’t think diminishes the Gospels in any way or somehow makes them seem less than what they are. In fact, the use of the vehicle of the ‘hero epic’ can be seen as not only a brilliant way to spread the message, but may also speak to just how Hellenized Jewish culture had become by the first century AD. One has to wonder if a more traditional Jewish template were used, if the spreading of the message would have been as successful as it was.
As far as “divinely inspired” is concerned – I don’t think the fact that the written form followed a particular literary style negates a divinely inspired text. Indeed, perhaps part of the inspiration was to use this literary style because it was so well known by the audience and more likely to spread than if presented in a more typical Jewish literary format/style.
Typically, yes, they were written in a more poetic form rather than prose.