their objection is simply frivolous, and the proposed adverse reasoning, worthless. Such, in fact, it most certainly is; for it will be found that πορευθεῖσα in ver. 10,—πορευομένοις in [pg 155] ver. 12,—πορευθέντες in ver. 15,—also “admit of no substitute in the places where they severally occur;” and therefore, since the verb itself is one of S. Mark's favourite verbs, not only are these three places above suspicion, but they may be fairly adduced as indications that the same hand was at work here which wrote all the rest of his Gospel.[275]
(V.) Then further,—the phrase τοῖς μετ᾽ αὐτοῦ γενομένοις (in ver. 10) is noted as suspicious. “Though found in the Acts (xx. 18) it never occurs in the Gospels: nor does the word μαθηταί in this passage.”
(1.) The phrase οἱ μετ᾽ αὐτοῦ γενόμενοι occurs nowhere in the Acts or in the Gospels, except here. But,—Why should it appear elsewhere? or rather,—How could it? Now, if the expression be (as it is) an ordinary, easy, and obvious one,—wanted in this place, where it is met with; but not met with elsewhere, simply because elsewhere it is not wanted;—surely it is unworthy of any one calling himself a Critic to pretend that there attaches to it the faintest shadow of suspicion!
(2.) The essence of the phrase is clearly the expression οἱ μετ᾽ αυτοῦ. (The aorist participle of γίνομαι, is added of necessity to mark the persons spoken of. In no other, (certainly in no simpler, more obvious, or more precise) way could the followers of the risen Saviour have been designated at such a time. For had He not just now “overcome the sharpness of Death”?) But this expression, which occurs four times in S. Matthew and four times in S. Luke, occurs also four times in S. Mark: viz. in chap. i. 36; ii. 25; v. 40, and here. This, therefore, is a slightly corroborative circumstance,—not at all a ground of suspicion.
(3.) But it seems to be implied that S. Mark, because he mentions τοὺς μαθητάς often elsewhere in his Gospel, ought to have mentioned them here.
(a) I answer:—He does not mention τοὺς μαθητάς nearly so often as S. Matthew; while S. John notices them twice as often as he does.
(b) Suppose, however, that he elsewhere mentioned them five hundred times, because he had occasion five hundred [pg 156] times to speak of them;—what reason would that be for his mentioning them here, where he is not speaking of them?
(c) It must be evident to any one reading the Gospel with attention that besides οἱ μαθηταί,—(by which expression S. Mark always designates the Twelve Apostles,)—there was a considerable company of believers assembled together throughout the first Easter Day.[276] S. Luke notices this circumstance when he relates how the Women, on their return from the Sepulchre, “told all these things unto the Eleven, and to all the rest,” (xxiv. 9): and again when he describes how Cleopas and his companion (δύο ἐξ αὐτῶν as S. Luke and S. Mark call them) on their return to Jerusalem, “found the Eleven gathered together, and them that were with them” (xxiv. 33.) But this was at least as well known to S. Mark as it was to S. Luke. Instead, therefore, of regarding the designation “them that had been with Him” with suspicion,—are we not rather to recognise in it one token more that the narrative in which it occurs is unmistakably genuine? What else is this but one of those delicate discriminating touches which indicate the hand of a great Master; one of those evidences of minute accuracy which stamp on a narrative the impress of unquestionable Truth?
(VI.) We are next assured by our Critic that θεᾶσθαι “is unknown to Mark;” but it occurs twice in this section, (viz. in ver. 11 and ver. 14.) Another suspicious circumstance!
(1.) A strange way (as before) of stating an ordinary fact, certainly! What else is it but to assume the thing which has to be proved? If the learned writer had said instead, that the verb θεᾶσθαι, here twice employed by S. Mark, occurs nowhere else in his Gospel,—he would have acted more loyally, not to say more fairly by the record: but then he would have been stating a strictly ordinary phenomenon,—of no significancy, or relevancy to the matter in hand. He is probably aware that παραβαίνειν in like manner is to be found in two consecutive verses of S. Matthew's Gospel; παρακούειν, twice in the course of one [pg 157] verse: neither word being used on any other occasion either by S. Matthew, or by any other Evangelist. The same thing precisely is to be said of ἀναζητεῖν and ἀνταποδιδόναι, of ἀντιπαρέρχεσθαι, and διατίθεσθαι, in S. Luke: of ἀνιστάναι and ζωννύναι in S. John. But who ever dreamed of insinuating that the circumstance is suspicious?