ections (Mark vi. 14-16), in the warning
against the Scribes and the widow's mite (Mark xii. 38-44), the
second and third Synoptics are allied against the first. On the
other hand, in the call of the four chief Apostles, the death of
the Baptist, the walking on the sea, the miracles in the land of
Gennesareth, the washing of hands, the Canaanitish woman, the
feeding of the four thousand and the discourses which follow, the
ambition of the sons of Zebedee, the anointing at Bethany, and
several insertions of the third Evangelist in regard to the last
events, the first two are allied against him. While Mark thus
receives such alternating support from one or other of his fellow
Evangelists, I am not aware of any clear case in which, as to the
order of the narratives, they are, united and he is alone, unless
we are to reckon as such his insertion of the incident of the
fugitive between Matt. xxvi. 56, 57, Luke xxii. 53, 54.

It appears then that, so far as there is an order in the Synoptic
Gospels, the normal type of that order is to be found precisely in
St. Mark, whom Papias alleges to have written not in order.

But again there seems to be evidence that the Gospel, in the form
in which it has come down to us, is not original but based upon
another document previously existing. When we come to examine
closely its verbal relations to the other two Synoptics, its
normal character is in the main borne out, but still not quite
completely. The number of particulars in which Matthew and Mark
agree together against Luke, or Mark and Luke agree together
against Matthew, is far in excess of that in which Matthew and
Luke are agreed against Mark. Mark is in most cases the middle
term which unites the other two. But still there remains a not
inconsiderable residuum of cases in which Matthew and Luke are in
combination and Mark at variance. The figures obtained by a not
quite exact and yet somewhat elaborate computation [Endnote 149:1]
are these; Matthew and Mark agree together against Luke in 1684
particulars, Luke and Mark against Matthew in 944, but Matthew and
Luke against Mark in only 334. These 334 instances are distributed
pretty evenly over the whole of the narrative. Thus (to take a
case at random) in the parallel narratives Matt. xii. 1-8, Mark
ii. 23-28, Luke vi. 1-5 (the plucking of the ears on the Sabbath
day), there are fifty-one points (words or parts of words) common
to all three Evangelists, twenty-three are common