he Matthaean sections
represent a substantive work, how are we to account for the
strange intrusion of the triple synopsis into the double? What are
we to say to the elaborately broken structure of ch. x? On the
other hand, if we are to take the Lucan form as nearer to the
original, that original must have been a singular agglomeration of
fragments which it is difficult to piece together. It is easy to
state a theory that shall look plausible so long as it is confined
to general terms, but when it comes to be worked out in detail it
will seem to be more and more difficult and involved at every
step. The Logia hypothesis in fact carries us at once into the
very nodus of Synoptic criticism, and, in the present state of the
question, must be regarded as still some way from being
established.

The problem in regard to St. Mark and the triple synopsis is
considerably simpler. Here the difficulty arises from the
necessity of assuming a distinction between our present second
Gospel and the original document on which that Gospel is based. I
have already touched upon this point. The synoptical analysis
seems to conduct us to a ground document greatly resembling our
present St. Mark, which cannot however be quite identical with it,
as the Canonical Gospel is found to contain secondary features.
But apart from the fact that these secondary features are so
comparatively few that it is difficult to realise the existence of
a work in which they, and they only, should be absent, there is
this further obstacle to the identification even of the ground
document with the Mark of Papias, that even in that original shape
the Gospel still presented the normal type of the Synoptic order,
though 'order' is precisely the characteristic that Papias says
was, in this Gospel, wanting.

Everywhere we meet with difficulties and complexities. The
testimony of Papias remains an enigma that can only be solved--if
ever it is solved--by close and detailed investigations. I am
bound in candour to say that, so far as I can see myself at
present, I am inclined to agree with the author of 'Supernatural
Religion' against his critics [Endnote 159:1], that the works to
which Papias alludes cannot be our present Gospels in their
present form.

What amount of significance this may have for the enquiry before
us is a further question. Papias is repeating what he had heard
from the Presbyter John, which would seem to take us up to the
very fountainhead of ev