onsequence of this, St. Luke's Gospel has
been said to show an _Ebionite_ tendency. But the word is misleading.
It is possible that some early Christians may have called themselves by
the name _Ebionim_, a Hebrew word which designated the poor and
oppressed servants of God. And it is known that in the 2nd century and
afterwards there was a heretical semi-Christian Jewish sect of that
name. But St. Luke's Gospel is utterly opposed to the main tenets of
these heretics, which were a repudiation of Christ's real Divinity and
an insistence upon the necessity of circumcision for all Christians.

{73}

Perhaps it is the gentleness of the evangelist, and his preference for
all that is tender and gracious, which causes his account of the twelve
apostles to differ considerably from that in Mark. Their slowness,
their weakness of faith, their rivalries, are set in a subdued light.
He does not tell us that Christ once called St. Peter "Satan," or that
Peter cursed and swore when he denied Christ. He omits the rebuke
administered to the disciples in the conversation concerning the leaven
(Mark viii. 17), the ambitious request of the two sons of Zebedee, and
the indignation of the disciples at Mary's costly gift of ointment
(Matt xxvi. 8). When St. Mark speaks of the failure of the disciples
to keep awake while their Master was in Gethsemane, he says that they
were asleep, "for their eyes were heavy" (xiv. 40). When St. Luke
speaks of it, he says that they were "sleeping for _sorrow_" (xxii.
45). Doubtless both accounts are true, and we can reverently wonder
both at the rugged honesty with which St. Peter must have told St. Mark
about the faults of himself and his friends, and at the consideration
shown by St. Luke towards the twelve in spite of the fact that he was
more closely connected with St. Paul than with them.

About one-third of this Gospel is peculiar to itself, consisting mainly
of the large section, ix. 51-xviii. 14. St. Luke here seems to have
used an Aramaic document; the beginning of the section is full of
Aramaic idioms. In places where St. Luke records the same facts as the
other Synoptists, he sometimes adds slight but significant touches.
The withered hand restored on the sabbath is the _right_ hand (vi. 6);
the centurion's servant is one _dear_ to him (vii. 2); and the daughter
of Jairus an _only_ daughter (viii. 42; cf. the son of the widow at
Nain, an _only_ son, vii. 12). Among the remarkable omiss