Luke here displays his freedom in working over the story of Mark. He builds upon Mk i, 19, yet instead of saying that the fishermen were mending their nets in their boats, he says they had gone out of their boats and were washing their nets. He has apparently read Mk iv, 1, also, and builds upon this the statement about Jesus’ going into the boat to get away from the crowd (which statement he later omits when he comes to it in Mark’s parable of the Sower). (There is a reminiscence here also of Mk iii, 9.) After the draft of fishes, when he comes to the words of Jesus to Peter, he picks up again a fragment of Mark’s account, tho still with an addition and with a deviation in the wording; Mark says δεῦτε ὀπίσω μου, καὶ ποιήσω ὑμᾶς γενέσθαι ἁλεεῖς ἀνθρώπων; Luke says μὴ φοβοῦ· ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν ἀνθρώπους ἔσῃ ζωγρῶν. Luke’s closing statement, “They left all and followed him” is substantially, tho not quite in wording, the same as Mark’s. No example could be more striking, of Luke’s freedom in his treatment of Mark. He exercises this freedom, however, in the narratives rather than in the words of Jesus; when he comes to these latter, even in the midst of a narrative which he has largely created out of mere fragments of Mark, he follows Mark comparatively closely. In not many narratives does Luke go to quite such lengths in his re-working as in this story and the account of the rejection (initial preaching) at Nazareth. But this is typical of him, as compared with Matthew’s treatment of the same source.
THE HEALING OF THE LEPER
(Mk i, 40-45; Mt viii, 1-4; Lk v, 12-16)
Matthew and Luke both omit Mark’s ἐμβριμησάμενος, for which they have in this case double ground; it is an unusual word, and it implies that Jesus was angry. Luke avoids Mark’s statement that the man directly disobeyed Jesus’ command not to tell of his cleansing.
THE HEALING OF THE PARALYTIC
(Mk ii, 1-12; Mt ix, 1-8; Lk v, 17-26)
Both Matthew and Luke have supplied their own introductions. Both substitute εἶπεν for Mark’s λέγει (Mk ix, 5) (a correction which Luke invariably makes). Both use substitutes for Mark’s κράβαττον. Luke avoids Jesus’ address to the man as τέκνον. In the words of Jesus to his critics and to the paralytic, both follow Mark with general fidelity, and tho Mark’s vss. 5b-10 appear to interrupt the story, both follow him in their inclusion of these verses. Luke’s change of Mark’s vs. 7 is a fine example of his ability to make an improvement in the sense with the least possible change in the wording. Mark reads, τί οὗτος οὕτως λαλεῖ; βλασφημεῖ· Luke changes to τίς ἐστιν ὃς λαλεῖ βλασφημίας; The latter fits much better into the question, “Who has power to forgive sins except God?” Mark has made Jesus, in his dispute with his critics, say “Which is easier, to say, ... or to say, rise, take up thy bed and walk?” Matthew and Luke make him leave out the clause “take up thy bed,” reserving this for Jesus’ actual address to the man a little later, whereas Mark uses it in both places. Luke heightens the effect of his story by saying “He took up that upon which he had been carried,” instead of “he took up his bed.” This may be a heightening of the contrast, or perhaps a hint that he did not know exactly what Mark’s κράβαττον was, tho he has elsewhere replaced it by κλινίδιον.[24]
THE CALLING OF LEVI (MATTHEW)
(Mk ii, 13-17; Mt ix, 9-13; Lk v, 27-32)
Matthew and Luke both correct Mark’s unusual if not ungrammatical use of ὅτι in the sense of why. Mark says “Why does he eat with publicans and sinners?” Matthew improves by reading, “Why does your master eat,” etc. Luke improves still more by directing the question to the disciples in such manner as to include Jesus, “Why do ye eat,” etc.