(Mk vi, 53-56; Mt xiv, 34-36)
This section is omitted by Luke. There are no sayings in it. Matthew’s customary abbreviation is shown in his 44 words against Mark’s 72; but there is much close verbal correspondence in spite of this.
ABOUT THE THINGS THAT DEFILE
(Mk vii, 1-23; Mt xv, 1-20)
Mark has an editorial comment about the scrupulosity of the Jews. It may be a later addition in his narrative, at least this may be the case with the words καὶ πάντες οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι, which make it apply to the whole people and not simply to the Pharisees; or it may have seemed to Matthew to be somewhat exaggerated and have been omitted by him on that account. Its omission improves the connection in Matthew’s narrative, and might be sufficiently accounted for by Matthew’s tendency to omit superfluous or negligible portions of Mark’s stories. In his vs. 11 (Matthew has transposed several verses) Mark has the Aramaic word κορβᾶν, omitted by Matthew. In Mark’s vs. 19 occurs the phrase καθαρίζων πάντα τὰ βρώματα. The construction is loose, the nearest verb with which the participle can be connected being the λέγει of the first part of the preceding verse. This alone might have induced Matthew to omit it; still more, the implication, that Jesus had in this saying abolished the distinction between clean and unclean. Nor is it surprising that Matthew should omit, among Mark’s list of the things that come out of a man’s heart and “defile him,” his mention of the “evil eye.”
THE CANAANITISH WOMAN
(Mk vii, 24-30; Mt xv, 21-28)
Matthew omits Mark’s statement that Jesus was not able to be hid. It may have seemed to him an unworthy limitation of the power of Jesus. Mark also recounts a clever answer of the woman, “The dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs”; and Jesus, for the cleverness of her reply, as he says, grants her wish. It is not strange that Matthew replaces this by Jesus’ words, “Great is thy faith.”
THE FEEDING OF THE FOUR THOUSAND
(Mk viii, 1-10; Mt xv, 32-39)