Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/827

Rh INTERSA L EVIDE.'CE.] the attempt of His mother and brethren to lay hands on Him on the ground that He was insane (iii. 20-21) ; the iiiiputa- tion of an ambitious petition to James and John, instead of (as Matthew) to their mother (x. 35); the mention of the marvel of Pilate at the speedy death of Jesus, which might have been perverted to support those who denied that Jesus had really died upon the cross (xv. 44) ; the statement that Jesus only gave power to His apostles to cast out devils (iii. 1:’), correct text), and not (as Mat. 2:. 1) to heal diseases; the enumeration of the different stages by which Jesus, at least on one occasion, effected a cure, and the description of the, at ﬁrst, only partial cure (viii. 24); the statement that the ﬁg—tree, instead of being withered up “immedi- ately ” (as Matthew, n-apaxpﬁpa, xxi. 19), was not observed to be withered till after the interval of a day; the bare statement (xvi. 4) that the women found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre (which might have been used to support the statements of those who maintained that the friends or enemies of Jesus had stolen His body), whereas Matthew (xxviii. 2) distinctly meets such an objection by asserting that an angel descended from heaven in the sight of the keepers and rolled away the stone ;-—tliese, and pro- bibly other expressions, indicate a very early date of com- position, and a disposition to record facts as they came, without emphasis or subordination. Mark neither masses similar sayings or deeds, as Matthew does, nor supplies motives and occasions, as Luke does. It is most interesting to note that the words “law,” “lawyer,” which played so prominent a part in Matthew and Luke, are not to be found at all in Mark’s narrative. His business is simply with the life of Christ. Again, whereas Matthew and (in'a less de- gree) Luke are careful to point out that Jesus fulﬁlled the sayings of the prophets, Mark, on the other hand, though he recognizes in John the Baptist (i. 2) the messenger pre- dicted by the prophets, sees in Jesus a Being too absorbing and interesting as a man to ﬁnd much time for contempla- tion of Him as the mere fulﬁller of prophecy. In a word, Mark writes of Jesus, not as the destroyer or fulﬁller of the law, not as the Messiah predicted by t_he prophets, not as the refuge of the Gentiles, but rather as a man; subject to anger, and disappointment, and weariness; not knowing all things; not able to do all things; but endowed with strange powers of healing the souls and bodies of men ; and carrying out a mysterious plan for the regeneration of the world, through a spirit of childlike obedience to God and brotherly love towards men ; lastly, a man who assumed for Himself and for His disciples a power of forgiving sins, and who based all the success of His plans upon His predicted death and resurrection, to be followed by a second coming. True, lIark’s Gospel is disproportioned, inartistic, and iincouth-scarcely, indeed, to be called a book, but rather a collection of graphic anecdotes. Yet it has aunity derived from its naive simplicity and single-niindedness, in recording whatever it records as it was delivered from the earliest sources in its entirety; and possibly in that string of anec- dotes the development of Christ’s life and work may be traced with not less clearuess than in the ampler and more artistic production of Luke. 1%: A dc./z'tz'ons and Pecnlz7ari.'tz'es of Jfaltlzew.-—The priii- cipal additions to the common tradition contributed by Matthew alone are the following :— (1) i._1-17, the genealogy of Jesus from David ; (2) i. 18-25, the aiinunciation, and the dream of Joseph ; (3) ii. 1-12, the adoration of the Magi ; (4) ii. 13-23, the massacre of children in Bethlehem and the ﬂight of the parents of Jesus to Egypt, together with their return to Nazareth ; (5) iii. 13-17, the reluctance of John to baptize Jesus; (6) iv. 14-16 the fulﬁlment of the prophecy, “The people that sit in darkness, &e.; (7) v. 5-10, the six beatitudcs on the S’)1'l'OWlll_f_‘{’, the meek, the merc.iful. the pure in heart, the peace- inakers, the persecuted; (8) v. 17-48, the new law is more exacting than the old law; (9) vi. 1 -18, warnings against ostentation in almsgiving. prayer, and fasting; (10) vi. 34, “Sufficient for the GOSPELS 80.5 day is the evil thereof”; (11) vii. 6, “ Give not that which is holy to dogs," &c.; (12) vii. 13, 14, "' Broad is the gate,” &e.; (13) vii. 22, “In thy name have we cast out devils,” &c.; (14) ix. 13 and xii. 7, the saying, “ I will have mercy and not sacriﬁce ”; (15) ix. 27-34, the cure of two blind men and of a deaf man ;‘ (16) x. 5-8, “ Go not into any city of tlie Samaritans,” &c., instructions to the twelve; (17) x. 23, “But when they pursue you in this city, flee unto the other; for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel until the Son of Man be come”; (18) x. 25, “The servant is not above his master,” &c.; (19) xi. 28-30, “Come unto Me, all ye that are weary," &c.; (20) xii. 17-21, the prophecy of Isaiah, “ Behold my servant,” &c., is fulﬁlled in Jesus; (21) xii. 22, 23, the healing of one that was both dumb and blind; (22) xii. 33, “ Either make the tree sound and the fruit sound, or,” &c.; (23) xii. 36, 37, “Every idle word,” &c.; (24) xii. 40, “As Jonas was in the wliale‘s belly,” .S;c.; (25) xiii. 14, 15, the fulﬁlment ofa piopliecy of Isaiah in the misunderstanding of Chri.st’s teaching; (26) xiii. 24-30, the enemy and the tarcs; (27) xiii. 35, the fulﬁl- ment of prophecy in Christ's teaching by parables; (28) xiii. 36-43, the interpretation of the parable of the tares ; (29) xiii. 44-50, “ The kingdom of heaven is like (a) a treasure, (li) a merchant buying a pearl, (c) a net; (30) xiii. 5], 52, Every disciple to bring forth things new and old," ((0.; 31) xiv. 28-33, the attempt of Peter to walk upon the waves; (32) xv. 123, “ Every plant that My heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up,” &e.; (33) xvi. 17-19, the blessing on Peter; (34) xvii. 24-27, the tribute money; (35) xviii. 3, 4, “ If ye be not converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter,” &c.; (36) xviii. 10, “Their angels do always behold,” &c.; (37) xviii. 12-14, the parable of the hundred sheep (given by Luke in similar language); (38) xviii. 15 -18, “ Tell it to the churcli,” &c., the coiiise of piocediire in case of quarrel; (39) xviii. 21, 22, the question of Peter, “ How often shall my brother sin against me?" (40) xviii. 23-34, the parable of the unforgiving servant; (41) xix. 10-12, “ ’l‘licre are some eunuchs," &c.; (42) xx. 1-15, the labourers in the vineyard; (43) xxi. 5, the fulﬁlment of the propliec.y, “Behold thy King conieth,” &c. ; (44) xxi. 16, the fulﬁlment of the prophecy, “ Out of the mouth of babes and suck- 1ings,"&c.; (45) xxi. 28-32, “ I go" and “ lgo not ”; (46) xxi. 43, “ The kingdom of God shall be taken fioin you, and shall be given to a nation that bringetli forth the fruits thereof”; (47) xxii. 1-14, the parable of the despiteful and murderous guests (very dissimilar in Luke); (48) xxiii. 1-3, “ The Scribes and Pharisees sitin Moses’ seat, &c.; (49) xxiii. 7-12; ib. 15-22, “ Be not called Rabbi,” &e., “ He that sweareth by the altar,” &e. ; (50) xxv. 1-13, the parable of the ten virgins; (51) xxv. 14-28, the parable of the talents ; (52) xxv. 31-46, the parable of the sheep and the goats ; (53) xxvi. 51-54, “ Put up thy sword,” and “ Tliiukest thou not that I cannot now pray to My Fatlicr_." &c.; (54) xxvii. 3-10, the fulﬁlment of the prophecy, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver,” &c.; (55) xxvii. 19, “Have thou nothing to do with that just man,” &c.; (56) xxvii. 24-25, Pilate washing his hands; (57) xxvii. 52, 53, “ And many bodies of them that slept arose,” &e.; (58) xxvii. 62-66, the Jews seal the sepiilelire; (59) xxviii. 2-5, the angel rolls tlt stone from the tomb of Jesus; (60) xxviii. 9-15, the women clasp the feet of the risen Jesus; the soldiers are bribed to say that the disciples stole away the body ; (61) xxviii. 16-20, Jesus appear. to the eleven disciples on a mountain in Galilee. The preface (chaps. i. and ii.) reveals a part of the pur- pose of the whole Gospel, in tracing the genealogy of Jesus, not from David merely, who was under the law, but from Abraham, who was the receiver of the promise (Gal. iii- 16) and the father of the faithful (Gal. iii. 7). Such :1 genealogy is the ﬁtting preface of a book which aims at exhibiting the law, not as trampled upon but as fulﬁlled and developed into a higher law of promise, in which all the families of the world were to be blessed (Gen. xii. 3). But by this time also the church required some distinct affirmation concerning the divine origin of Jesus. The gap left in the opening of Mark’s Gospel needed to be ﬁlled up. The mere earthly pedigree from Abraham was insufficient ; nor did it suffice that Jesus should be declared to be spiritually the Son of God. It was necessary that the verity of the spiritual birth of Jesus from the Father slio_uld be embodied in a narrative so expressed as to be intelligible to all. The differences between the prefaces of Matthew and Additions Luke are obvious, and need no stress laid on_ them, except as illustrations of the freedom which,.at this period, was allowed in the handling of the various introductions to the ‘ Possibly these narratives may refer to events also described by Mark; but, as the language presents no similarity, they are placed here.