acts of the Gospel as it appears to us
now? There is a certain ambiguity as to the phrase 'in order.' We
cannot be quite sure what Papias meant by it, but the most natural
conclusion seems to be that it meant chronological order. If so,
the statement of Papias seems to be so far borne out that none of
the Synoptic Gospels is really in exact chronological order; but,
strange to say, if there is any in which an approach to such an
order is made, it is precisely this of St. Mark. This appears from
a comparison of the three Synoptics. From the point at which the
second Gospel begins, or, in other words, from the Baptism to the
Crucifixion, it seems to give the outline that the other two
Gospels follow [Endnote 147:1]. If either of them diverges from it
for a time it is only to return. The early part of St. Matthew is
broken up by the intrusion of the so-called Sermon on the Mount,
but all this time St. Mark is in approximate agreement with St.
Luke. For a short space the three Gospels go together. Then comes
a second break, where Luke introduces his version of the Sermon on
the Mount. Then the three rejoin and proceed together, Matthew
being thrown out by the way in which he has collected the parables
into a single chapter, and Luke later by the place which he has
assigned to the incident at Nazareth. After this Matthew and Mark
proceed side by side, Luke dropping out of the ranks. At the
confession of Peter he takes his place again, and there is a close
agreement in the order of the three narratives. The incident of
the miracle-worker is omitted by Matthew, and then comes the
insertion of a mass of extraneous matter by Luke. When he resumes
the thread of the common narrative again all three are together.
The insertion of a single parable on the part of Matthew, and
omissions on the part of Luke, are the only interruptions. There
is an approximate agreement of all three, we may say, for the rest
of the narrative. We observe throughout that, in by far the
preponderating number of instances, where Matthew differs from the
order of Mark, Luke and Mark agree, and where Luke differs from
the order of Mark, Matthew and Mark agree. Thus, for instance, in
the account of the healings in Peter's house and of the paralytic,
in the relation of the parables of Mark iv. 1-34 to the storm at
sea which follows, of the healing of Jairus' daughter to that of
the Gadarene demoniac and to the mission of the Twelve in the
place of Herod's refl