Mark calls Peter by the name of Simon, as is uniform with him up to the time Jesus gives him the name of Peter at his calling of the twelve. Matthew calls him Peter, by which name he knows him from the beginning. Luke’s displacement of the call of Peter involves him in the anachronism of having the healing take place in his house before he becomes a disciple.
THE HEALINGS IN THE EVENING
(Mk i, 32-34; Mt viii, 16-17; Lk iv, 40-41)
Mark says “In the evening when the sun was set.” Matthew has reduced the redundancy of this expression by saying merely “When it was evening.” Luke has caught the point of Mark’s expression, namely, that the Sabbath was over, and so has reduced the pleonasm by saying only “The sun having set.” Mark says they brot all the sick to Jesus and he healed many. Matthew improves this by saying they brot many and he healed all. Luke goes a step farther and says they brot all, and he healed every one. No explanation is necessary for these changes except the natural desire to avoid the implication that there were some whom Jesus did not heal, and to make the statement of his cures as positive and inclusive as possible. Matthew mentions only the possessed, Mark puts the sick and the possessed in the same class, Luke gives a separate paragraph to each. Both Matthew and Luke avoid Mark’s irregular and unusual form ἤφιεν.
THE RETIREMENT OF JESUS
(Mk i, 35-38; Lk iv, 42-43)
Matthew omits, for reasons already given.[23] Luke avoids Mark’s strange word, κωμοπόλεις. Where Mark says “Simon and those with him,” Luke says “the crowd,” because in Luke’s story Simon is not yet a disciple.
THE CALLING OF PETER
(Lk v, 1-11)