THE OMISSIONS OF MATTHEW AND LUKE IN THE MARCAN NARRATIVE[10]

OMISSIONS MADE BY BOTH MATTHEW AND LUKE

The omission of the stories of the healing of the deaf-and-dumb man and the blind man (Mk vii, 31-37; viii, 22-26), is sufficiently accounted for by the character of those accounts. The crassness of the means used and the apparent difficulty of the cures offended the growing sense of the dignity of Jesus.

The exceedingly patronizing answer of the scribe to Jesus in Mk xii, 32-34 is probably omitted by Matthew and Luke for the same reason. The parable of the Seed Growing of Itself (Mk iv, 26-29) may have been omitted because it so closely duplicated other material in both Matthew and Luke;[11] it has been suggested also that it might have a discouraging effect, or at least not a stimulating one, upon the missionary activities of the early church.

The first visit of Jesus to the temple (Mk xi, 11) is mentioned by Mark in three words only. No incident is connected with it, but Jesus is said to have looked about and, as it was late, to have gone back to Bethany. The incident may have dropped out because unsupported by any events or sayings; or the three words e?? t? ?e??? may have crept into the text of Mark after its use by Matthew and Luke (the sense is equally good without them).

The mention of the man in the linen garment (Mk xiv, 51) and the names of Alexander and Rufus (Mk xv, 21) may have been omitted because neither Matthew nor Luke nor their readers would be acquainted with these persons.

OMISSIONS MADE BY MATTHEW IN THE MARCAN NARRATIVE

Matthew omits the account of the preaching of Jesus in the synagogue at Capernaum (Mk i, 21-28) because he wished to give a much more detailed account of Jesus’ preaching, in his Sermon on the Mount. This explanation becomes a practical certainty when we observe that the statement which Mark and Luke make concerning the effect of the sermon in the synagogue, “They were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes,” is used by Matthew to describe the effect of the Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew’s omission of the flight of Jesus (Mk i, 35-38) is probably due to its failure to fit into his story, as this has been changed on account of the insertion of the Sermon on the Mount. The retirement takes place from Capernaum, as a result of the enthusiasm aroused by Jesus’ preaching there. Matthew does not represent Jesus as preaching in Capernaum. He brings Jesus to Capernaum in chaps. 8 and 9, not however to preach, but to work miracles. Jesus closes this series of healings with the statement (Mt ix, 37-38), “The harvest is great but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the lord of the harvest that he send forth laborers into his vineyard.” The retirement does not follow naturally upon this series of healings, much less upon these words, and so is omitted.

The omission of the story of the unknown exorcist (Mk ix, 38-41), as Wernle remarks,[12] is not so easy to explain. It may be observed, however, that by its omission Matthew secures a better connection between the two sayings of Jesus which are thus brought into succession: “He that receiveth one such little one in my name receiveth me,” and “but he that causeth one of these little ones that believe in me to stumble, it is better for him,” etc. (Mt xviii, 5, 6).

The story of the widow’s mite (Mk xii, 41-44) Matthew may have omitted because he lacks the connection for it which is supplied in the Gospel of Mark. Mark makes Jesus speak of the Pharisees who “devour widow’s houses,” and immediately after this introduces the incident of the widow’s self-sacrifice. Matthew has omitted the incident because he has not the proper occasion for it.[13]

Matthew’s other omissions have been accounted for under the omissions common to him with Luke. The sum total of them is very small and in general they are easily accounted for.

OMISSIONS MADE BY LUKE IN THE MARCAN NARRATIVE[14]

Luke omits the circumstantial account of the death of the Baptist (Mk vi, 17-29); he has long ago inserted the account of his imprisonment (Lk iii, 19-20), wishing to finish with John before beginning with Jesus. “But the circumstantial account did not fit in that place.”[15]The longest omission of continuous Marcan material is made by Luke in omitting the whole of Mk vi, 45 to viii, 26. This long omission immediately precedes the long insertion of special Lucan material, indicating a possible difficulty in combining the two sources at this point. Quite without this, however, there are more or less obvious reasons for Luke’s omission of every section in this long passage. He avoids[16] the repetition of the same story, and may have regarded Mark’s feeding of the four thousand (Mk viii, 1-10) as a repetition of the feeding of the five thousand which Luke has already copied from him.

The demand for a sign is a doublet in Matthew; Luke has taken it once with Matthew from Q and therefore does not care to take it with him here again from Mark (Mk viii, 11-13). The dispute about things that defile (Mk vii, 1-23) had no significance for a gentile writer or his gentile readers. As early as his 4th chapter, Luke has represented Jesus as turning from the Jews, who had rejected him, to the gentiles; he cannot therefore use Mark’s story of the Canaanitish woman, (Mk vii, 24-30), with its apparently narrow national outlook: “It is not meet to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”[17] The crossing of the lake to Gennesaret has in Mark (vi, 53-56) no particular incident connected with it, merely the statement that many people came to Jesus and were healed. It may have been omitted by Luke because he has a duplicate in viii, 22-25. The omission of this item was no particular loss to Luke’s account; but with its omission the incident of the walking on the water also fell out. The latter may have been omitted also because of its implied aspersion upon the disciples. Luke may have been the more ready to drop this, as his interest in the miracles of Jesus is confined more largely to the healings, the miracles peculiar to Luke being entirely of this kind.

Luke omitted the discussion of Jesus with the Pharisees about Elias (Mk ix, 9-13) because it had no interest for his gentile readers. The omission of the saying about offenses (Mk ix, 42-48) is accounted for by Luke’s having a parallel for the first part of it in another connection; the last part, about cutting off the hand or the foot, may have seemed to him, with his Greek taste, too harsh a saying to be attributed to Jesus.

Luke omitted the journey thru Judaea (Mk x, 1) (or Perea) because in its place he has given a long account (Lk ix, 51-xviii, 14) (again his great interpolation) of the journey thru Samaria. The terminus of both journeys and their place in the story are the same. The question about marriage and divorce (Mk x, 2-12) is again connected with a Pharisaic dispute; Luke has also given his own briefer version of the same item (xvi, 18); for either or both of these reasons he omits it here. The request of James and John for chief seats in the kingdom (Mk x, 35-45) Luke omits because it reflects upon the motives of those disciples; Matthew perceives the same objection to it, but, more faithful to his sources he gets over the difficulty by attributing the request to the mother, instead of to the disciples. Mark’s discussion about the disciples’ failure to bring bread (Mk viii, 14-21) Luke may have omitted because of its implication of carelessness on the part of the disciples. Luke also uniformly avoids any implication of lack of knowledge on the part of Jesus, and this incident includes one such.[18]

The question about the great commandment (Mk xii, 28-34) Luke may have omitted because it also is connected with a dispute with a scribe. Or if Luke’s passage (x, 25-28) be considered a parallel to it, this is enough to account for its omission here. On this latter supposition, Luke has used the saying as an introduction to his story of the Good Samaritan. The cursing of the fig tree (Mk xi, 12-14) Luke apparently regarded as a misunderstanding of the parable of the Fig Tree, which he gives. Whether so or not, it is of the same kind as the other miracles which Luke omits, in that it is not a miracle of healing. The anointing in Bethany (Mk xiv, 3-9) has a parallel in the anointing (both in the “house of Simon”) by the sinful woman, which Luke has related in his 7th chapter (vss. 36-50). “The second session of the sanhedrim he has combined with the first.”[19]

Concerning the great omission of Luke (Mk vi, 45-viii, 26), it should be added that his Gospel is now considerably longer than Mark’s and even than Matthew’s. He had much material of his own to incorporate. Rolls of papyrus were of an average length, and not capable of indefinite extension. Luke could not include all Mark’s material without omitting much that he has derived elsewhere. If it was necessary or convenient for him to make an omission amounting in length to the matter he has passed over in Mark, it was much easier and simpler for him to omit an entire section of that length, than to go here and there thru Mark to make his necessary total of eliminations. This consideration, with the character of the material omitted, sufficiently accounts for the “great omission.”[20]