mber of
incidents in the Synoptic Gospels be reckoned as eighty-eight, the
distribution of the incidents shared by at least two Gospels is as
follows:--

In all three Gospels . . . . . . . 42
In Mark and Matt. . . . . . . . . 12
In Mark and Luke . . . . . . . . . 5
In Matt. and Luke . . . . . . . . 12

If we add the above together, we realize that seventy-one incidents out
of a total of eighty-eight are to be found in more than one Gospel. Of
the remaining seventeen incidents, three are peculiar to Mark, five to
Matt., and nine to Luke.

(c) _Similar groups of incidents._--Not only is there a common
selection of facts, but detached events which happened at different
times are sometimes grouped together in the same way in all of the
Synoptic Gospels or in two of the three. Thus in all three we find
together the cure of the paralytic, the call of Levi, and the question
of fasting (Matt. ix. 1-17; Mark ii. 1-22; Luke v. 17-39); so also the
plucking of the ears of corn and the cure of the withered hand--events
separated by at least a week (Matt. xii. 1-21; Mark ii. 23-iii. 6; Luke
vi. 1-11). Thus also the death of John the Baptist is introduced both
in Matt. xiv. 3 and in Mark vi. 17 to explain the fear felt by Herod
Antipas that he had risen from the dead. In fact, when a parallel
passage is found in all three Synoptic Gospels, it is never immediately
followed in _both_ Matt. and Luke by a whole separate incident which is
not in Mark.[2] There is a general tendency in Matt. and Luke to
narrate the same facts as Mark in the order of Mark. And therefore it
is difficult to think that the original basis of the Synoptic Gospels,
whether written or unwritten, did not coincide closely with Mark in the
order of events.

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(d) _Similarity of language._--The Synoptic Gospels often agree
verbally. And this agreement is not merely found in the reports of the
sayings of our Lord, but even in the narrative of events. It extends
even to rare Greek words and phrases. The clauses are often remarkably
similar. Sometimes quotations from the Old Testament are found in two
or three Gospels with the same variations from the original. Matt.
iii. 3, Mark i. 3, and Luke iii. 4 have the same quotation from Isa.
xl. 3, in which they agree in every word, although at the end they
depart in the same way from both the Hebrew and the Greek version of
the Old Testament, for they put "His paths" instead of "the paths of