was an inhabitant of Galilee, and did not join
Christ's society until some time after Christ had come into Galilee to
preach, has given us very little of his history prior to that period.
Saint John, who had been converted before, and who wrote to supply
omissions in the other Gospels, relates some remarkable particulars
which had taken place before Christ left Judea, to go into Galilee.
(Hartley's Observations, vol. ii. p. 103.)

Saint Matthew (xv. 1) has recorded the cavil of the Pharisees against
the disciples of Jesus, for eating "with unclean hands." Saint Mark has
also (vii. 1) recorded the same transaction (taken probably from Saint
Matthew), but with this addition: "For the Pharisees, and all the Jews,
except they wash their hands often, eat not, holding the tradition of
the elders: and when they come from the market, except they wash, they
eat not: and many other things there be which they have received to
hold, as the washing of cups and pots, brazen vessels, and of tables."
Now Saint Matthew was not only a Jew himself, but it is evident, from
the whole structure of his Gospel, especially from his numerous
references to the Old Testament, that he wrote for Jewish readers. The
above explanation, therefore, in him, would have been unnatural, as not
being wanted by the readers whom he addressed. But in Mark, who,
whatever use he might make of Matthew's Gospel, intended his own
narrative for a general circulation, and who himself travelled to
distant countries in the service of the religion, it was properly added.

CHAPTER IV.

IDENTITY OF CHRIST'S CHARACTER.

THE argument expressed by this title I apply principally to the
comparison of the first three Gospels with that of Saint John. It is
known to every reader of Scripture that the passages of Christ's history
preserved by Saint John are, except his passion and resurrection, for
the most part different from those which are delivered by the other
evangelists. And I think the ancient account of this difference to be
the true one, viz., that Saint John wrote after the rest, and to supply
what he thought omissions in their narratives, of which the principal
were our Saviour's conferences with the Jews of Jerusalem, and his
discourses to his apostles at his last supper. But what I observe in the
comparison of these several accounts is, that, although actions and
discourses are ascribed to Christ by Saint John in general different
from what are given to hi