(XVII.) Next,—ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι μου (ver. 17) is noticed as another suspicious peculiarity. The phrase is supposed to occur only in this place of S. Mark’s Gospel; the Evangelist elsewhere employing the preposition ἐπί:—(viz. in ix. 37: ix. 39: xiii. 6.) (1.) Now really, if it were so, the reasoning would be nugatory. _S. Luke_ also once, and once only, has ἐν τῷ ὀνόματί σου: his usage elsewhere being, (like S. Mark’s) to use ἐπί. Nay, in two consecutive verses of ch. ix, ἐπί τῷ ὀνόματί μου—σου is read: and yet, in the very next chapter, his Gospel exhibits an unique instance of the usage of ἐν. Was it ever thought that suspicion is thereby cast on S. Luke x. 17? (2.) But, in fact, the objection is an oversight of the learned (and generally accurate) objector. The phrase recurs in S. Mark ix. 38,—as the text of that place has been revised by Tischendorf, by Tregelles and by himself. This is therefore a slightly _corroborative_, not a suspicious circumstance. (XVIII. and XIX.) We are further assured that παρακολουθεῖν (in ver. 17) and ἐπακολουθεῖν (in ver. 20) “are both _foreign to the diction of Mark_.” (1.) But what can the learned author of this statement possibly mean? He is not speaking of the uncompounded verb ἀκολουθεῖν, of course; for S. Mark employs it at least twenty times. He cannot be speaking of the compounded verb; for συνακολουθεῖν occurs in S. Mark v. 37. He cannot mean that παρακολουθεῖν, because the Evangelist uses it only once, is suspicious; for that would be to cast a slur on S. Luke i. 3. He cannot mean generally that verbs compounded with prepositions are “foreign to the diction of Mark;” for there are no less than _forty-two_ such verbs which are even _peculiar to S. Mark’s short Gospel_,—against thirty which are peculiar to S. Matthew, and seventeen which are peculiar to S. John. He cannot mean that verbs compounded with παρά and ἐπί have a suspicious look; for at least _thirty-three_ such compounds, (besides the two before us,) occur in his sixteen chapters.(287) What, then, I must really ask, can the learned Critic possibly mean?—I respectfully pause for an answer. (2.) In the meantime, I claim that as far as such evidence goes,—(and it certainly goes a very little way, yet, _as far as it goes_,)—it is a note of S. Mark’s authorship, that within the compass of the last twelve verses of his Gospel these two compounded verbs should be met with. (XX.) Dr. Davidson points out, as another suspicious circumstance, that (in ver. 18) the phrase χεῖρας ἐπιτιθέναι ἐπί τινα occurs; “instead of χεῖρας ἐπιτιθέναι τινι.” (1.) But on the contrary, the phrase “_is in Mark’s manner_,” says Dean Alford: the plain fact being that it occurs no less than three times in his Gospel,—viz. in chap. viii. 25: x. 16: xvi. 18. (The other idiom, he has four times.(288)) Behold, then, one and the same phrase is appealed to as a note of genuineness _and_ as an indication of spurious origin. What _can_ be the value of such Criticism as this?