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the old covenant, Moses and Elias, as it had just before been attested by the great confession of Peter.1 That confession was a token that the ministry of power and love had done its work upon the hearts of the disciples, and it is fitly followed by the announcement of His appointed sufferings, the disciples being now ready to follow their Master through the valley of His humiliation, which was to conduct them at last from the blackness and darkness of death to the glories of divine life and immortality.

A distinguishing feature of this Gospel is the large place assigned in it to the words of Jesus, arranged in a systematic form, not broken up into fragments as they are in the other Gospels. For this reason Godet compares Luke to “a botanist who prefers to contemplate a flower in the very place of its birth and in the midst of its natural surroundings, while Matthew is like the gardener who for some special object puts together large and magnificent bouquets." To some extent this remark is applicable to Matthew's grouping of incidents in our Lord's life, as well as to his arrangement of discourses.

1 xvi. 16: "And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."

2 Forming about a fourth part of the whole book.

3 Godet traces five such general discourses in Matthew's Gospel, viz., the Sermon on the Mount (v.-vii.), the official instructions to the twelve apostles (x.), the series of parables on the kingdom of heaven (xiii.), principles of Church discipline (xviii.), and utterances relating to Christ's exercise of judgment (xxiii.-xxv.)—all of them closing with similar words (vii. 28; xi.

I; xiii. 53; xix. 1; xxvi. 1). These five discourses he regards as forming the Hebrew original of Matthew's Gospel, and finds in their number a correspondence with the five books of Papias on the Lord's Discourses. But it is now generally admitted that the Lord's Oracles is a more correct rendering of the title of Papias' work (Kuριaкŵν λoyiwv); and, besides, the structure of the Gospel is too subtle and complex to admit of such mechanical treatment. (Godet's Biblical Studies -English Translation, 8th edition, pp. 15-20.)

CHAPTER IV.

"THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK."

I. Authorship.

THE testimony of the early Fathers, so far as it has reached us, unanimously ascribes the second Gospel to St. Mark; but with equal unanimity they connect it with the preaching of the Apostle Peter. The earliest witness is Papias, the bishop already referred to, who makes the following statement on the authority of John, a contemporary of the apostles, if not the apostle of that name: "This also the elder used to say: Mark having become Peter's interpreter, wrote accurately whatever things he remembered that were either said or done by Christ; but not in order. For he neither heard the Lord nor followed Him; but subsequently, as I said, attached himself to Peter, who used to frame his teaching to meet the wants of his hearers, but not as making a connected narrative of the Lord's oracles (or discourses). So Mark committed no error in thus writing down particulars just as he remembered them; for he took heed to one thing, to omit none of the things that he had heard, and to state nothing falsely in his account of them.” 1

So little doubt seems to have been entertained regarding the Petrine authorship of this Gospel that we find

1 Καὶ τοῦτο ὁ πρεσβύτερος ἔλεγε. Μάρκος μὲν ἑρμηνευτής Πέτρου γενόμενος, ὅσα ἐμνημόνευσεν, ἀκριβῶς ἔγραψεν, οὐ μέντοι τάξει, τὰ ὑπὸ τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἢ λεχθέντα ἢ πραχθέντα. Οὔτε γὰρ ἤκουσε τοῦ Κυρίου, οὔτε παρηκολούθησεν αὐτῷ, ὕστερον δὲ, ὡς ἔφην, Πέτρῳ, ὃς πρὸς τὰς χρείας

ἐποιεῖτο τὰς διδασκαλίας, ἀλλ ̓ οὐχ ὥσπερ σύνταξιν τῶν κυριακῶν ποιούμενος λογίων (or λόγων) ὥστε οὐδὲν ἥμαρτε Μάρκος, οὕτως ἔνια γράψας ὡς ἀπομνημόνευσεν. Ενὸς γὰρ ἐποιή‐ σατο πρόνοιαν, τοῦ μηδὲν ὧν ἤκουσε παραλιπεῖν ἢ ψεύσασθαί τι ἐν αὐτοῖς. Eus. Η. Ε. iii. 40.

Justin Martyr apparently referring to it as the Memoirs of Peter.1 According to Irenæus, it was written by Mark at Rome after the death of Peter and Paul; while Clement of Alexandria, writing about the same time, affirms, on the tradition of a long line of presbyters, that St. Mark wrote at the request of Peter's hearers at Rome, without any interference on the part of Peter himself.

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Regarding the history of the Mark thus referred to, and his relations with the Apostle Peter, we derive information from Scripture which is fitted to corroborate in a great measure the ancient tradition. There can be no doubt that we are to identify him with the John Mark mentioned in Acts xii. 12, whose mother Mary was an influential member of the Church at Jerusalem-her house being the place where prayer was made for Peter by the brethren during his imprisonment, and where he himself repaired immediately after his liberation. It is an interesting conjecture that this house may have been the scene of the Last Supper and of the Pentecostal effusion of the Holy Spirit. It has also been suggested that the "young man referred to in Mark's Gospel, in connection with the arrest in the garden, may have been none other than the author of the book, who was thus led to record an incident which to others would have appeared insignificant.2 Mark's intimacy with Peter at a later time is evident from I Peter v. 13,3 where the apostle conveys Mark's salutation to his readers in Asia Minor; and from the designation which Peter there applies to him ("my son "), we may infer that he was one of that apostle's converts. It appears that at the time the epistle was written he was residing with Peter in Babylon, but although the Eastern city of that name was then, and continued to be for long

1 Καὶ τὸ εἰπεῖν μετωνομακέναι αὐτὸν Πέτρον ἕνα τῶν ἀποστόλων, καὶ γεγράφθαι ἐν τοῖς ἀπομνημονεύμασι αὐτοῦ γεγενημένον καὶ τοῦτο. Dial. c. 106. The above is the natural rendering of the words, according to Justin's usage; but some take avroû to refer to Christ.

2 xiv. 51: "And a certain young man followed with him, having a linen cloth cast about him, over his naked body and they lay hold on him; but he left the linen cloth, and fled naked."

3 1 Peter v. 13: "She that is in Babylon, elect together with you, saluteth you; and so doth Mark my son."

afterwards, a famous seat of Jewish learning, there is reason to believe that in the passage referred to Babylon is only another name for Rome (Chap. xxi. § 3). Previous to his association with Peter in apostolic work abroad, Mark had accompanied Paul and Barnabas as their "minister" or assistant, but had withdrawn from the work.1 After some years, he rejoined his cousin Barnabas, whose will. ingness to receive him again as a colleague was so displeasing to Paul that he parted company with Barnabas on this account.2 We find him again enjoying Paul's confidence, however, during the imprisonment of the latter at Rome; for the apostle commends him to the Colossians as one of his "fellow-workers unto the kingdom of God," who had been a "comfort" to him. Mark was then, apparently, about to set out for Asia; and, accordingly, we find Paul, during his second imprisonment, requesting Timothy to bring him with him (from Ephesus), because he was "useful to him for ministering."4 This is the last time we hear of Mark in Scripture; but according to tradition he returned to Rome, and, after the martyrdom of Peter and Paul, went to Alexandria, where he founded a famous catechetical school, and died a martyr's death.5

Turning now to internal evidence, we find strong confirmation of the traditional account. The book may be described as very much an expansion or development of the brief statement made by Peter in his address to Cornelius and his friends." It also follows closely the line

1 Acts xii. 25: "And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem (i.e., to Antioch), when they had fulfilled their ministration, taking with them John whose surname was Mark." xiii. 5, 13: "And when they were at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews: and they had also John as their attendant.. Now Paul and his company set sail from Paphos, and came to Perga in Pamphylia and John departed from them and returned to Jerusalem."

2 Acts xv. 37-40: "And Barnabas was minded to take with them John also, who was called Mark. But Paul thought not good to take with them

him who withdrew from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work. And there arose a sharp contention, so that they parted asunder one from the other, and Barnabas took Mark with him, and sailed away unto Cyprus; but Paul chose Silas, and went forth, being commended by the brethren to the grace of the Lord."

3 Col. iv. 10, II; Philemon ver. 24. 42 Tim. iv. II.

5 In the 9th century St. Mark's body is said to have been transferred from Alexandria to Venice, where he has been honoured as patron-saint ever since. "That saying ye

6 Acts x. 37-42:

of apostolic testimony which Peter had himself marked out immediately after the Ascension.1 The whole tone of the book reflects Peter's energetic, impulsive, unconventional character. Its rapid transition from one incident to another —of which we have a striking illustration in the fact that the Greek word 2 variously translated "straightway,” “immediately," "forthwith," &c., occurs in it no less than fortyone times; its practical matter-of-fact tone, illustrated by the fact that while it records eighteen miracles it contains only four parables,3 and twice represents the Lord and His disciples as having their hands so full of work that "they could not so much as eat bread "4; its vivid description of the excitement occasioned by Christ's ministry, and of the profound impression made on those who heard and saw Him, which would be a subject congenial to Peter's enthusiastic nature 5; its omission of some things redounding

yourselves know, which was published throughout all Judæa, beginning from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached; even Jesus of Nazareth, how that God anointed him with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the country of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom also they slew, hanging him on a tree. Him God raised up the third day, and gave him to be made manifest, not to all the people, but unto witnesses that were chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead. And he charged us to preach unto the people, and to testify that this is he which is ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead."

1 Acts i. 21, 22: "Of the men therefore which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and went out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, unto the day that he was received up from us, of these must one become a witness with us of his resurrection."

2 Ευθέως οι εὐθύς. The word occurs only eighteen times in Matthew, and eight times in Luke.

3 Viz., the Sower, the Mustard seed, the wicked Husbandman, and the Seed

growing secretly, the last being peculiar to this Gospel. It is "the kingdom of God" they refer to an expression that is characteristic of Mark and Luke, as distinguished from "the kingdom of heaven," which is the usual form in Matthew's Gospel.

4 Mark iii. 20: "And the multitude cometh together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread." vi. 31: "For there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.' In i. 21-39 we have a fuller account of a single day in our Lord's ministry than is to be found in any other Gospel-if we except the history of the Passion week. It describes also His retirement for prayer; and thus contains a picture in miniature of the whole life, which is represented in this Gospel as an alternation of rest and toil, of prayer and conflict.

5e.g., i. 27: "And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What is this? a new teaching! with authority he commandeth even the unclean spirits, and they obey him." i. 33: "And all the city was gathered together at the door." ii. 2: "And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room for them, no, not even about the door : and he spake the word unto them.' ii. 12: "They were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on

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