Sources of the Synoptic Gospels Part 6

In the cursing of the fig tree (Mk xi, 12-14; Mt xxi, 18-19), the statement of Mark, "For it was not the time for figs," may have been omitted by Matthew because seeming to imply an unreasonable expectation on the part of Jesus. Or it may be a later addition to Mark. Matthew says that the disciples noticed "immediately" that the tree had withered, whereas Mark says they observed this the next day. Matthew's change may have been in the interest of heightening the miracle. Upon his observation here he has hung his statement about the wonder of the disciples in his vs. 20. Luke omits this miracle; probably because he considers the parable of the Fig Tree which he gives in xxi, 29-31 (taking it from Mk xiii, 28-29 = Mt xxiv, 32-33) a variant of, or an improvement upon, the same story.

The speech about the withered fig tree (Mk xi, 20-25; Mt xxi, 20-22) Luke omits because he has omitted the miracle upon which it depends. The saying about faith apparently stood in both Mark and Q, since Matthew has a doublet upon it. This may have been an additional reason for Luke's omission of it here, since he has incorporated it in his xvii, 6.[42]

In the question about authority (Mk xi, 27-33; Mt xxi, 23-27; Lk xx, 1-8) the intervention of the fig tree story in Mark (and Matthew) obscures the point of the question about Jesus' authority, which was directed toward his action in cleansing the temple. There is very close agreement among the three in the question of Jesus to his questioners (Mk xi, 30; Mt xxi, 25; Lk xx, 4), tho both Matthew and Luke avoid Mark's anacoluthon at the beginning of the following verse.

In the parable of the Evil Husbandmen (Mk xii, 1-12; Mt xxi, 33-46; Lk xx, 9-19) Mark says, "They took him and killed him and cast him out"; Matthew and Luke say, "They cast him outside the vineyard and killed him,"

presumably influenced in this correction by the fact of Jesus' crucifixion outside the city.[43] Matthew puts into the mouth of the questioners one saying which Mark ascribes to Jesus; the questioners are thus convicted by their own testimony.

In the question of the Sadducees about the resurrection (Mk xii, 18-27; Mt xxii, 23-33; Lk xx, 27-40) Mark says, quite correctly, "The Sadducees, who (as is well known) say there is no resurrection";[44] Matthew not so happily represents them as making this statement to Jesus; Luke corrects still further, being apparently unacquainted with the tenets of the Sadducees as a cla.s.s, and so says, "Certain of the Sadducees came, denying that there is any resurrection." It is one of the instances, perhaps comparatively few, where Mark would better have been left as he was. To make the contrast between this world and the next stronger Luke adds in his vs. 34, "the sons of this world marry and are given in marriage." He also attempts to explain the apparently incomplete statement, "G.o.d is not of the dead but of the living," by adding "for all live to him."[45]

In the question about the great commandment (Mk xii, 28-34; Mt xxii, 34-40; Lk x, 25-28), Matthew's addition, "Upon these two commandments hang all the law, and the prophets," is perhaps an old Christian formula, which seems to fit remarkably well in this place.

In the question about David's son (Mk xii, 35-37; Mt xxii, 41-46; Lk xx, 41-44), Luke corrects Mark's statement, "David said in the Holy Spirit,"

with "David says in the book of Psalms"; Mark is nearer to Jesus, Luke writes for the convenience of his readers who might wish to look up the reference.

In the speech against the Pharisees (Mk xii, 38-40; Mt xxiii, 1-7; Lk xx, 45-47), Mark's "Beware of the Pharisees, who love to walk about in robes, and greetings in the market" is not positively ungrammatical, since the infinitive and the noun may both be the object of the verb. But it is a loose construction; Luke corrects it by the insertion of a second verb governing the noun.

In the predictions of distress (Mk xiii, 9-13; Mt xxiv, 9-14; Lk xxi, 12-19), Mark's p??e????te, a word not found elsewhere in the New Testament or Septuagint, is avoided by Matthew and Luke. Matthew's pa.s.sage (xxiv, 10-12) about the false prophets who shall deceive many, and the love of many growing cold, whether attributed to the evangelist, or to the tradition lying just behind him, reflects the conditions of his times.

In the saying about the distress in Judaea (Mk xiii, 14-20; Mt xxiv, 15-22; Lk xxi, 20-24), Mark's construction of a neuter noun with a masculine participle, a construction according to the sense (d????a ...

?st???ta), his unusual construction of e?? t?? ????? meaning "in the field," and his equally strange combination of words ?s??ta? ??? a? ???a?

e?e??a? ??????, ??a ?? ?????e? t??a?t?, are all replaced by Matthew and Luke. Luke omits ? ??a????s??? ??e?t?, because it is not applicable to his readers. He adds "until the times of the nations are fulfilled,"

apparently upon Paul's hypothesis that the end could not come till the gospel had first been preached to all the nations (Rom xi, 11, 15, 31).

This is Luke's subst.i.tute for the explanation which Matthew has copied from Mark, that the Lord has shortened the days for the sake of the Christians. In the speech about the parousia (Mk xiii, 24-27; Mt xxiv, 29-31; Lk xxi, 25-28), Matthew has added e?????. This is Mark's favorite adverb, and its addition by Matthew where it is lacking in Mark is hard to understand. Perhaps, as Bacon says, Matthew the Palestinian wishes to encourage the hope of the speedy coming of Jesus, while Mark the Roman wishes to discourage it; but the reasons for this are not perfectly clear.

Schmiedel considers the omission of the e????? in Mark as a sign of his secondary character at this point.

In the pa.s.sage about the time of the parousia (Mk xiii, 30-32; Mt xxiv, 34-36; Lk xxi, 32-33), Luke omits Mark's statement that "the son" does not know the time; because he always avoids any implication of a limitation in the knowledge of Jesus.[46] In the preparation for the Pa.s.sover (Mk xiv, 12-17; Mt xxvi, 17-20; Lk xxii, 7-14), Luke omits the "my" in the question which Jesus tells the disciples to ask, "Where is my chamber where I shall," etc.; perhaps, as Hawkins[47] suggests, because it may have seemed to him a somewhat harshly expressed claim.

In the inst.i.tution of the Last Supper (Mk xiv, 22-25; Mt xxvi, 26-29; Lk xxii, 15-20), Luke adds (xxii, 19-20) words which seem to be taken from Paul's account in I Cor xi, 25. Westcott and Hort regard them as interpolated from that epistle. Matthew adds, in his vs. 28, as he has added in his account of the purpose of John's baptism, "for the remission of sins."

In the account of Jesus in Gethsemane (Mk xiv, 32-42; Mt xxvi, 36-46; Lk xxii, 39-46), Luke's vss. 43-44 are lacking in many ma.n.u.scripts, and are probably a later addition. Luke and Matthew, probably from the growth of the tradition, and from the wish not to omit anything from this solemn scene, represent Jesus as addressing Judas, but do not agree in the words ascribed to him.

In the account of the arrest (Mk xiv, 43-54; Mt xxvi, 47-58; Lk xxii, 47-55) Mark has the words "but that the scriptures might be fulfilled,"

without attaching the "that" to anything. Matthew fills out his incomplete sentence by writing, "All this happened that the scriptures," etc. Luke omits the flight of the disciples, because the appearances of the risen Jesus which he recounts take place in Jerusalem. Both Matthew and Luke omit the reference to the young man in the linen garment, either because they did not understand it, or knew it would have no meaning for their readers, or both. Mark says the crowd who came to arrest Jesus came "_from_ the chief priests"; Luke has apparently overlooked the preposition, and so represents the chief priests themselves as taking part in the arrest.

To Mark's mocking "Prophesy!" addressed to the blindfolded Jesus by the soldiers, Luke and Matthew add the words, clearly explanatory, "Who is he that struck thee?"

In the denial of Peter (Mk xiv, 66-72; Mt xxvi, 69-75; Lk xxii, 56-62), Matthew and Luke omit two obscure and strange words of Mark, p??a????? in vs. 68 and ?p?a??? in vs. 72. In the treatment of Jesus by Pilate, Luke adds the charge that Jesus had stirred up the people not to pay tribute to Caesar; it is probably a reflection of the anarchistic charges made against Christians in Luke's time. Matthew's addition of Pilate's hand-washing is probably due to his desire, or the desire of the tradition back of him, to relieve the Roman authorities of responsibility for the death of Jesus.

In the story of the journey to the crucifixion (Mk xv, 21; Mt xxvii, 32; Lk xxiii, 26-32), the omission of the names of Rufus and Alexander is probably due (as already said) to the fact that these men were unknown to Matthew and Luke and their readers, and added no weight to the testimony of Simon their father. Luke's extremely vivid touch of Jesus' address to the "Daughters of Jerusalem" can be explained only as a part of his special material for this portion of the life of Jesus.

In the story of the crucifixion (Mk xv, 22-32; Mt xxvii, 33-44; Lk xxiii, 33-43), Luke's words, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do," are omitted in many ma.n.u.scripts, are bracketed by Westcott and Hort, and are probably a later addition. Matthew corrects Mark, who says a man came with a sponge, saying, "Let him be," etc.; Matthew makes the crowd address the "Let him be" to the man with the sponge.

Luke apparently differs much more than Matthew, from Mark, in his story of the crucifixion, and the events that led up to and followed it. This can be explained by his possession of special sources for these last days of Jesus, and his desire to use material from these sources with his Marcan matter. Transpositions are especially frequent.

In his xxii, 18, e.g., Luke makes a transposition of Mk xiv, 25. This may be taken as typical of his procedure throughout these sections. Mark gives the reference to the approaching betrayal before the inst.i.tution of the Supper; Luke, after that inst.i.tution. Mark places the prediction of the denial of Peter after Peter has left the room; Luke, before his leaving.

Similar transpositions are made in the story of the rending of the veil.

In all, Luke makes some twelve or thirteen such transpositions in Mark's pa.s.sion narrative. Matthew follows Mark closely, both in matter and in wording.

Comparing Luke's use of Mark in the other parts of his Gospel with his use of him in these last sections, Hawkins[48] finds that "the verbal correspondence with the Marcan source is about twice as great in the Lucan account of the ministry as in the Lucan account of the pa.s.sion." The amount of actually new material in Luke's pa.s.sion section is about three times as great as the amount of new material which Luke introduces into any other correspondingly large section of Marcan narrative.

SUMMARY ON MATTHEW'S AND LUKE'S TREATMENT OF THE MARCAN NARRATIVE

The manner in which Matthew and Luke have treated the Gospel of Mark has been brought out in the concrete and detailed examples that have been considered. No single motive, especially no one so-called "tendency" of either writer explains all his modifications of his Marcan source. Both Matthew and Luke omitted what seemed to them superfluous, as well as whatever appeared to them to conflict with the higher veneration for Jesus which had developed in their times. Luke especially omitted what would have no significance or interest for his Greek readers--disputes with the Pharisees, questions of Jewish law, and other Judaistic features.

Both Matthew and Luke treated the actual words of Jesus, as recorded in Mark, with great respect. But the narrative, and in a less degree the parables, they felt free to work over as they would. Matthew shows much greater fidelity to his source than Luke. But both of them reconstructed sentences or whole stories, changed bad constructions into good ones, added what material they would, Matthew combining this with his Marcan material while Luke kept it for the most part distinct. Not every change which they made suggests its explanation to us, and we cannot be certain that in most of them we have the actual motive operating in the mind of the evangelist. But the method of their procedure, the kind of motives that influenced them, the degree of freedom which they took in the re-working of their material from Mark, and their habits with reference to the relation of this Marcan material to the other matter which they wished to combine with it, have been sufficiently established.[49]

CHAPTER V

HAVE WE THE GOSPEL OF MARK IN ITS ORIGINAL FORM?

The number of instances in which Matthew and Luke agree in their changes of Mark has given rise to the theory that Matthew and Luke did not use our Mark but an earlier form. A certain number of such agreements might be pa.s.sed over as merely accidental. A certain number more might be a.s.signed to a.s.similation. But if the agreements of Matthew and Luke in their corrections of Mark are so numerous and so striking as to be quite beyond accounting for in these ways, the a.s.sumption would be justified that Matthew and Luke used, not our copy of Mark, but one in which the text ran as it now does in those pa.s.sages where Matthew and Luke agree against Mark.

There are some indications that we do not have the Gospel of Mark in its original form. The conclusion is lacking. This however throws no light on an Ur-Marcus, since the conclusion was lacking in the Mark used by Matthew and Luke.[50]

There are many signs of apparent transposition in our Mark. The insertion of one miracle into the midst of another, as in the case of Jairus'

daughter and the woman with the issue of blood (v, 21-43), might be held to be such a transposition. The incident of the Beelzebul dispute (iii, 20-30) is inserted between the coming of the family of Jesus (iii, 21) to take him home with them, and Jesus' statement (iii, 31-35), which is the sequel of their coming, about his true brotherhood. The speech about the cursing of the fig tree (xi, 20-26) intervenes between the cleansing of the temple (xi, 15-19) and the demand of the scribes (xi, 27-33) as to the authority by which Jesus has done so unwonted a thing. After this question about authority, and before Jesus' reply to it, or before the description of the discomfiture of the scribes at the reply, seriously interrupting the connection, comes the parable of the Wicked Husbandmen.[51]

After the story of the transfiguration the prediction of Jesus' sufferings comes in between the Scribes' question about Elijah and Jesus' answer to that question (Mk ix, 11-13). Loisy thinks Mk xiv, 28, out of place. It certainly disturbs the connection. Julicher considers Mk xiv, 25, to be later and less original than its parallel in Mt xxvi, 29. The saying in xiv, 9, about the name of the woman being known wherever the story of Jesus is told has been suggested as the remark of some preacher or commentator a propos of the occurrence, and not a saying of Jesus.

Wellhausen has even suggested that the whole story in xiv, 3-9, may be a later addition. The saying, "Ye shall say to this mountain" (xi, 23) should probably be placed in Galilee, presumably at Capernaum, where with a wave of his hand Jesus could point to both mountain and sea--not in Jerusalem where Mark gives it. Schmiedel considers Mk xiv, 58, secondary.

It has been argued, or almost a.s.sumed, that the second feeding of the mult.i.tude could not have been written by the same hand that described the first, nor the events narrated in the first thirty-four verses of chap. iv have been written in their present order. If one is at liberty to subtract what he will from the Gospel of Mark, and to rearrange its parts somewhat, he can undoubtedly make a much more readable and better arranged Gospel of it than it now is.

DISCUSSION OF THE a.n.a.lYSIS OF MARK BY WENDLING AND VON SODEN

Two attempts have recently been made to resolve our Gospel of Mark into its const.i.tuent elements, which are sufficiently successful to be noticed here. The first is that of von Soden, in his _Die wichtigsten Fragen im Leben Jesu_, and the second Wendling's _Ur-Marcus_.[52]

Von Soden[53] begins by distinguishing two strands of narrative, easily separable from each other by matter and style. The great differences between these two strands betray two different authors. As the clearest instance of the earlier strand, he takes Mk ii, 1-iii, 6, which he contrasts with iv, 35-v, 43. In the first, all the interest is centered in the words of Jesus; in the second, in the events themselves. "Let one compare the story of the Gadarene demoniac with its twenty verses and the debate about fasting with its five verses, and estimate the weight of the religious value of the thots expressed in the two sections."

Von Soden next separates Mk vii, 32-37, and viii, 22-26 (the healing of the deaf man and the blind man), as quite distinct in character from such stories as those in ii, 1-12, and iii, 1-6. "In the former, the miracle of healing is itself the subject of the representation; in the latter, the miracle is merely a part of the story, whose real subject is Jesus'

forgiveness of sins and his violation of the Sabbath laws."

In this way von Soden picks out his _Kernstucke_. To these _Kernstucke_ certainly belong the group of narratives in i, 21-39; ii, 1-iii, 6; xii, 13-44; iii, 20-35; vi, 1-6; iv, 1-8; iv, 26-32; and x, 13-31; perhaps also vii, 24-30; vi, 14-16; i, 4-11. To these narratives which go back to Peter may also belong the brief notices concerning the stages of growth of the apostolic circle, in i, 16-20; iii, 13-19; vi, 7-13; viii, 27-ix, 1; and ix, 33-40.[54] To these pa.s.sages von Soden adds xiii, 1-6, 28-37. He says that at the basis of the story of the days in Jerusalem, xi, 1-xii, 12, and the pa.s.sion narrative in chaps. xiv and xv, lie narratives of a similar style; but these latter he does not include in his _Kernstucke_.

Von Soden then prints the pa.s.sages which he thus refers to Peter (or the Petrine tradition), "undisturbed by all that our Gospel of Mark has interwoven with them."[55] The result presents the Petrine nucleus of the Gospel as follows: John the Baptist and the Baptism of Jesus; a Sabbath in Capernaum; the offense of the Jews at Jesus' forgiving of sins, his a.s.sociation with sinners, his breaking of the Sabbath, and the fact that his disciples do not fast; how the Jews attempt to take him; how Jesus meets the general misunderstanding; parables about the kingdom of G.o.d; the question as to who shall enter that kingdom; the development of the apostolic circle; glimpses into the future.

This makes (with the readjustment in the order of some of the sections) a remarkably straightforward and connected narrative. Von Soden's remarks concerning it are well worth quoting:

These narratives are without any embellishment or secondary interest.

They are plastic and concrete in every feature. The local coloring is strikingly fresh and yet in no way artificial. No edificatory remarks are inserted, no reflections, only deeds and striking sayings. No story requires its secret meaning to be explained by symbol or allegory. In no one of them does one feel any occasion to inquire for the meaning, which lies clear upon the surface. Situations and words are too original to have been invented. Everything breathes the odor of Palestine. There is no reminiscence of Old Testament stories.

Miracles appear only here and there, and incidentally.... The christological or soteriological question never const.i.tutes the motive of a story. Not once is there any expression from the language of the schools, especially from that of Paul. Words and sentences are reminiscent of the Aramaic. The figure of Jesus itself bears in every reference a human outline. He is stirred and astonished, he is angry and trembles, he needs recuperation and feels himself forsaken of G.o.d, he will not have the thotless, conventional designation "good"

addressed to him, and confesses that he does not know when all which he sees to be approaching shall be fulfilled. His mother and his sisters fear that he may be out of his mind. This and much else is told with the greatest navete. So Jesus lived; so he expressed himself; thus they received him; thus the apostolic circle was formed and developed--this is what the writer intends to tell.[56]

These sections of Mark certainly have a very primary character; so far as their contents is concerned, they may well go back to the Petrine tradition.