I. B. DOCUMENT MK COMPARED WITH DOCUMENT M Comparisons have been made under II: B above. C. DOCUMENT MK COMPARED WITH DOCUMENT P COMPARISONS WHERE SAYINGS OCCUR NOT ONLY IN MK AND P BUT IN M ALSO ARE MADE UNDER 11:C:4, 5 ABOVE, AND UNDER 21 BELOW 2. THE MISSION OF THE DISCIPLES charged them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; no bread, no wallet, no money in their purse; but to go shod with sandals: and, said he, put not on two coats. D And he said unto them, Wheresoever ye enter into a house, there abide till ye depart thence. Ꭰ E F And into whatsoever house ye shall enter, first say, Peace be to this house. And if a son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon him: but if not, it shall turn to you again. And in that same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house. And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you: and heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. But into whatsoever city ye shall enter, and they receive you not, go out into the streets thereof and say, Even the dust from your city, that cleaveth to our feet, we do wipe off against you: howbeit know this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh. I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom, than for that city. It is perhaps impossible with the evidence at hand in these days to determine whether the disciples made one or more than one tour in the lifetime of Jesus. Does the fact that no single document knows of more than one tour suggest that there was one only? Apart from the numbers that are said to have been sent out, do the other details of the narrative require that it be held that there were two distinct tours? As has been seen, Matthew solved the problem by combining documents MK and P on this subject, Matt. 9:37-10:16. The number sent out he did not have to record since he did not represent the instructions as applying to a mission within the lifetime of Jesus. Because Luke was faithful to his documents as units he included both tours, apparently recognizing that an omission from either MK or P, in this case, would destroy the contextual relations. 3. RECEPTION IN THE MISSION DOCUMENT MK 9:37 Whosoever shall receive one of such little children in my name, receiveth me: and whosoever receiveth me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me. DOCUMENT P §6 He that heareth you heareth me; and he that rejected you rejecteth me; and he that rejecteth me rejecteth him that sent me. In document P the saying is a part of that discourse which was spoken in connection with the mission; in document MK it is a part of the rebuke of the Twelve because of their ambitions for place. Do both the form and the setting require it to be regarded as a repeated saying? If so, what does it mean in its MK context? How can it be normally interpreted and yet held to bear a definite relation to the problem with which Jesus was dealing at that time, unworthy ambition in the disciples? Precisely stated, what does it mean to "receive one of such little children in my name"? And how is such receiving a receiving of Jesus? Would the MK verse be freed from the difficulties now inherent if "one of such little children" were regarded as an equivalent for "a disciple of mine"? Would its thought then be substantially different from that of the P parallel? But even with such an understanding of the content of "one of such little children" is the verse appropriate to the occasion to which MK assigns it? Does its sole fitness for its present context depend upon the phrase "one of such little children"? How interpret the MK verse so that the act for which it calls is both intelligible and practicable, and at the same time calculated to be a rebuke to ambitious disciples ?1 4. THE CHARGE OF LEAGUE WITH BEELZEBUB DOCUMENT MK §18 DOCUMENT P§16 The difficulties which seem to confront one who would find a satisfying interpretation for the saying in MK are considered on pp. 67-78. E And if I by Beelzebub cast F G When the strong man fully armed guardeth his own court, his goods are in peace: but when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him his whole armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils. He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth. DOCUMENT P§21 H And every one who shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Spirit it shall not be forgiven. The extreme faithfulness of the evangelist Luke to the order of his documents as he found them is perhaps nowhere better illustrated than in his apparent unwillingness to disturb P even to the extent of bringing P§21 into such relation to P §16 as would give him the context corresponding to that of document MK. This is remarkable, especially when it is observed how fundamentally P §21 is related in thought to P§16, a relation so close that it would occur to a reader apart from its suggestion by document MK. It is not as if P§21 were contextually related also in its present position, for this will hardly be held. How very different is the method of Matthew, who unites MK §18, P§16, and P§21 into a continuous narrative, Matt. 12:22-32. It will be agreed that the P contributions to this narrative are of the very highest significance. 5. THE TRUE KINDRED OF JESUS DOCUMENT MK §19 And there come his mother and his brethren; and, standing without, they sent unto him, calling him. And a multitude was sitting about him; and they say unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. And he answereth them, and saith, Who is my mother and my brethren? And looking round on them which sat round about him, he saith, Behold, my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother. DOCUMENT P $16 And it came to pass, as he said these things, a certain woman out of the multitude lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the breasts which thou didst suck. But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it. Because in document MK this paragraph is the sequel to the charge of league with Beelzebub, and in document P is a part of the section relating that charge, it was suggested at a previous point in this study that these are two differing accounts of one event. This cannot be demonstrated, but its possibility suggests the setting of the two records in parallelism. Does the documentary evidence require that this request and reply be considered as repeated on two different occasions? Certainly the influence of the document P record is to be seen in the case of Matthew, who in taking over the narrative at the document MK point, MK 8:11-13=Matt. 16:1-4, added “but the sign of Jonah." 7. THE LEAVEN OF THE PHARISEES DOCUMENT MK 8:14-17 And they forgot to take bread; and they had not in the boat with them more than one loaf. And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. And they reasoned one with another, saying, We have no bread. And Jesus perceiving it saith unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? do ye not yet perceive, neither understand? have ye your heart hardened? DOCUMENT P $19 And when he was come out from thence, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press upon him vehemently, and to provoke him to speak of many things; laying wait for him, to catch something out of his mouth. In the mean time, when the many thousands of the multitude were gathered together, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Is the circumstantiality of setting such as demands the belief that this saying was spoken twice? What bearing on the question has the fact that the following section in document P forms only an apparent and artificial junction with this saying? And if the discourse against the Pharisees which forms the preceding section in P was spoken in the last days of Jesus' public activity rather than here, as is suggested by document MK, what remains of the P setting of this saying? If P §18 belongs elsewhere and P §17 is related in thought neither to P§18 nor to P §16, this saying in P§19 may once have stood in immediate conjunction with the reply of Jesus to a request for a sign, P §16K-N, as it does also in the MK document, MK 8:11-17. It is a saying which would easily be remembered and handed down apart from any original context; but also, it may be said, one which may have come more than once from the lips of Jesus. 8. THE MYSTERY OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD DOCUMENT MK §21 And he said unto them, Is the lamp brought to be put under the bushel, or under the bed, and not to be put on the stand? For there is nothing hid, save that it should be manifested; neither was anything made secret, but that it should come to light. If any man hath ears to hear, let him hear. And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: DOCUMENT P 20 But there is nothing covered up, that shall not be revealed: and hid, that shall not be known. Wherefore, whatsoever ye have said in the darkness shall be heard in the light; and what ye have spoken in the ear in the inner chambers shall be proclaimed upon the housetops Each setting of this saying about the hid and secret or covered which is to be manifested or revealed in the future is appropriate, yet the two settings are very different. That of MK belongs to the period when "the mystery of the kingdom" was being revealed to the disciples themselves; that of document P to the time when the disciples were being instructed to speak freely of that "mystery" to others, in the prosecution of the mission about which Jesus was instructing them. Each appearance of the saying sheds light upon its meaning in its other context. Both illuminate the thought of Jesus in his phrase "the mystery of the kingdom of God." As the conclusion of a considerable body of sayings on the mission of the disciples and the attendant persecutions, P §20, these words of Jesus have a highly appropriate, historical setting. May the same be said about their place in document MK? Apart from the saying in MK 9:1, by which these words are followed, do they bear a close relation in thought to their context, MK 8:34-9:1? Is the mission of the disciples the theme of the conversation of Jesus on this occasion? When he speaks of losing the life, MK 8:35, does he refer solely or primarily to the destruction of the life of the body by persecutors? Yet, under drastic persecution might not the early community take the words to refer practically altogether to violence to the body? If so, would this saying about denial tend to steady the faltering, and because of this value become attached to these words which were taken to refer to persecution? And was further comfort found in the |