THE STORM ON THE LAKE
(Mk iv, 35-41; Mt viii, 23-27; Lk viii, 22-25)
Matthew and Luke omit the statement that other boats accompanied the one in which Jesus sailed. Perhaps, as Hawkins suggests, they wondered how these weathered the storm. Or, since the point of narrating the story has to do only with the boat in which Jesus sailed, they may simply have seen no advantage in relating the circumstance of the other boats. Matthew substitutes the comparatively common word, tho I believe not common in exactly this connection, σεισμὸς, for Mark’s rare word λαῖλαψ. Matthew and Luke omit the statement that Jesus was “asleep on the cushion”; it has been suggested that they may have considered the use of the cushion as an effeminacy unworthy of Jesus; or more probably they have omitted it as of no consequence. They both omit the direct address of Jesus to the sea, as they often omit his words of address to the demons. They do not wish to represent the disciples as distrustful; so while Mark says “Master, dost thou not care that we perish?” Matthew says “Save, Lord; we perish,” and Luke simply “Master, we perish.”
THE GADARENE DEMONIAC
(Mk v, 1-20; Mt viii, 28-34; Lk viii, 26-39)
The name of the locality is different in each account. Some texts, however, make Matthew agree with Mark; others make him agree with Luke; while still other texts do the same for Luke with reference to Mark and Matthew. The exact location, or the proper name for it, may have been in dispute. Matthew shortens Mark’s narrative, as almost invariably. Luke shows himself to be no mere copyist; in view of Mark’s statement that after the demoniac’s cure they found him “clothed,” he supplies in his original description of the demoniac the statement which Mark does not have, that the man wore no clothes. Matthew and Luke again omit Jesus’ command to the demon to come out of the man. Luke includes Jesus’ question, “What is thy name?” But to make it plain that this question is addressed to the man and not to the demon, he changes Mark’s statement, “for we are many,” into his own editorial explanation, “for many demons had entered into him.” Matthew and Luke are involved in a slight difficulty by their abbreviation of Mark. For while Mark makes those who have seen the cure of the demoniac tell their neighbors about him “and about the swine,” Matthew and Luke omit this latter item. It therefore appears from Matthew and Luke that the Gadarenes requested Jesus to depart from their coasts lest their demoniacs should be cured; in Mark they asked him to depart because they did not wish their property destroyed. Luke’s change of Mark’s ὁ κύριος (Mk’s vs. 19) into ὁ θεός, is not easily explained if Luke understood Mark to refer to Jesus by his ὁ κύριος. As the latter word, however, is ambiguous, and as Mark seems to use it more often than the other evangelists with reference to God, Luke may have so understood his narrative here. But as the man went and told, not what God, but what Jesus, had done for him, Luke can hardly have so misunderstood Mark; and Luke’s change may be due to his feeling that Jesus did not call himself κύριος. This indeed seems to be the only place where Mark puts this self-designation into the mouth of Jesus. Matthew and Luke seem consistently to avoid it.
THE DAUGHTER OF JAIRUS AND THE WOMAN WITH THE ISSUE OF BLOOD
(Mk v, 21-43; Mt ix, 18-26; Lk viii, 40-56)
This curious insertion of one miracle within another might be held to be enough in itself to prove the literary dependence of the three synoptists. Luke’s change of Mark’s vs. 23 is explained by the anacoluthon in Mark. Matthew and Luke naturally avoid Mark’s θυγάτριον. Their substitution of the “tassel of his garment” for “his garment” is unusual, since it seems to indicate their closer definition of the kind of cloak worn by Jesus. The change may serve to heighten the appearance of reverence in the woman. Luke substitutes παραχρῆμα for Mark’s εὐθὺς; the latter is Mark’s uniform word for “immediately,” used by him forty-one times against Matthew’s eighteen and Luke’s seven; the former is Luke’s favorite word, being used ten times by him, twice by Matthew, and never by Mark. Matthew and Luke omit the question of the disciples to Jesus, “Sayest thou, Who touched me?” as possibly implying lack of respect upon their part. They also omit Mark’s parenthetical statement that John was the brother of James; this had been mentioned often enough already. Luke’s abbreviation of Mark involves him in the difficulty of saying that Jesus allowed nobody to go into the house with him, except the three disciples and the parents of the child, whereas Mark expressly says that he allowed only those to go with him into the death chamber. Matthew, not mentioning the death chamber, has a reminiscence of it in his participle εἰσελθὼν, coming as it does after the ἐλθὼν εἰς τὴν οἰκίαν of his previous verse. In this story also Luke has read Mark thru carefully; and finding that Mark inserts “she was twelve years old” after the statement that she arose and walked, prefers to put this into the more appropriate place as part of the introductory narrative; he is thus enabled at the same time to make the connection in the latter part of the story much better by saying that as soon as the girl sat up Jesus commanded her parents to give her something to eat; a command which in Mark follows only after several other items. Luke thus makes the giving of food to the girl a part of the means used for her recovery.