THE HEALING OF TWO BLIND MEN
(Mt ix, 27-31)
There is a strong similarity between this story and the story of the healing of two blind men near Jericho (Mt xx, 29-34). In the latter case Matthew substitutes the two men for Bartimaeus in the story of Mark and Luke. The source is apparently a special one, perhaps an oral tradition influenced by Mk x, 46-52.
THE HEALING OF A DUMB MAN
(Mt ix, 32-34)
Vs. 34 is a doublet of Mt xii, 24; the latter is from Mk iii, 22, where Mark also appears to be following Q. Perhaps ix, 27-34, has been inserted at just this place, in order to warrant the statement of Jesus to John the Baptist that “the blind see and the deaf hear.” It is hardly necessary to assign it to a special literary source.
INSTRUCTIONS TO THE DISCIPLES
(Mt x, 5-8)
These verses have a strong Judaistic coloring: “Into a way of the Gentiles do not go, and into a city of the Samaritans do not enter,” etc. They also betray the expectation of the early coming of the parousia. These two items are inconsistent with the invention of these verses by Matthew. They must have arisen long before Matthew’s time. Yet they are imbedded in Q material. No theory of their origin suits all these facts so well as that they are a portion of the Q material which was added to that document after its original compilation, and in the recension that was finally used by Matthew. It is interesting to observe that Matthew here makes Jesus teach his disciples (vs. 7) the same formula which he himself had learned from John the Baptist.