One of these sources was made use of also by St. Mark in the composition of his Gospel.
According to the testimony of Papias:
“John the Priest said this: Mark being the interpreter of Peter, whatsoever he recorded he wrote with great accuracy, but not, however, in the order in which it was spoken or done by our Lord, for he neither heard nor followed our Lord, but, as before said, he was in company with Peter, who gave him such instruction as occasion called forth, but did not study to give a history of our Lord's discourses; wherefore Mark has not erred in anything, by writing this and that as he has remembered them; for he was carefully attentive to one thing, not to pass by anything that he heard, nor to state anything falsely in these accounts.”[265]
It has been often asked and disputed, whether this statement applies to the Gospel of St. Mark received by the Church into her sacred canon.
It can hardly be denied that the Canonical Gospel of Mark does answer in every particular to the description of its composition by John the Priest. John gives five characteristics to the work of Mark:
1. A striving after accuracy.[266]
2. Want of chronological succession in his narrative, which had rather the character of a string of anecdotes and sayings than of a biography.[267]
3. It was composed of records of both the sayings and the doings of Jesus.[268]
4. It was no syntax of sayings (σύνταξις λογίων), like the work of Matthew.[269]
5. It was the composition of a companion of Peter.[270]