ABOUT OFFENSES
(Mk ix, 42-48)
Matthew here follows Mark rather closely, except that he adds “Woe to the world because of offenses,” and conflates Mark’s two sayings about the hand and the foot into one. Matthew has doublets for Mk ix, 43, 45-47, in Mt v, 29-30, and xviii, 8-9. Luke has avoided the doublet, but has a parallel to Mark’s verses in Lk xvii, 1-2. The section may be assigned to Mark and Q.
ABOUT SALT
(Mk ix, 49-50)
The little saying in vs. 49 is unduplicated in either of the other Gospels. If any source be suggested for it, nothing more likely than Q could be suggested. If the saying be assigned to Q, it will be the only Q saying in Mark not taken over by either Matthew or Luke. Luke agrees in xiv, 34, with Mark as against Matthew (v, 13), and with Matthew against Mark in μωρανθῇ, but shows the influence of Mark again in ἀρτυθήσεται. Either Mark follows Q very loosely, perhaps from memory, or Matthew and Luke have a different recension.
ABOUT DIVORCE
(Mk x, 11-12)
Matthew has doublets for this saying (Mt v, 32; xix, 9). In the latter occurrence of the saying in Matthew, the connection is the same as that of Mark’s. It is omitted in that instance by Luke, presumably because it is part of a controversy with the Pharisees. But doubt is thrown upon the presence of the saying in Q by the fact that it occurs twice in Mark also, and may have been taken from him by Matthew in both instances.
THE FIRST WHO SHALL BE LAST