The Lost and Hostile Gospels: An Essay on the Toledoth Jeschu, and the Petrine and Pauline Gospels of the First Three Centuries of Which Fragments RemainBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
The Lost and Hostile Gospels: An Essay on the Toledoth Jeschu, and the Petrine and Pauline Gospels of the First Three Centuries of Which Fragments Remain
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Apocryphal Gospels
3. Both the sayings and the doings of Jesus are related in it.
4. It contains no long discourses, like the Gospel of St. Matthew,
arranged in systematic order.
5. It contains many incidents which point to St. Peter as the authority
for them, and recall his preaching.
To this belong—the manner in which the Gospel opens with the baptism of
John, just as St. Peter’s address (Acts x. 37‐41) begins with that event
also; the many little incidents mentioned which give token of having been
related by an eye‐witness, and in which the narrative of St. Matthew is
deficient.(271) St. Mark’s Gospel is also rich in indications of the
feelings of the people toward Jesus, such as an eye‐witness must have
observed,(272) and of notices of movements of the body—small significant
acts, which could not escape one present who described what he had
seen.(273)
That the composer of St. Matthew’s Gospel made use of the material out of
which St. Mark compiled his, that is, of the memorabilia of St. Peter, is
evident. Whole passages of St. Mark’s Gospel occur word for word, or
nearly so, in the Gospel of St. Matthew.(274)
Moreover, it is apparent that sometimes the author of St. Matthew’s Gospel
misunderstood the text. A few instances must suffice here.
Mark ii. 18: “And the disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting.
And they came to him and said to him, Why do the disciples of John, and
the disciples of the Pharisees, fast, and thy disciples fast not?” It is
clear that it was then a fasting season, which the disciples of Jesus were
not observing. The “they” who came to him does not mean “the disciples of
John and of the Pharisees,” but certain other persons. Καὶ ἔρχονται is so
used in St. Mark’s Gospel in several places, like the French “on venait.”
But the compiler of St. Matthew’s Gospel did not understand this use of
the verb without a subject expressed, and he made “the disciples of John”
ask the question.
Mark vi. 10: Ὅπου ἂν εἰσέλθητε εἰς οἰκίαν, ἐκεῖ μένετε ἕως ἄν ἐξέλθητε
ἐκεῖθεν. That is, “Wherever (_i.e._ in whatsoever town or village) ye
enter into a house, therein remain (i.e. in that house) till ye go away
thence (_i.e._ from that city or village).” By leaving out the word
_house_, Matthew loses the sense of the command (x. 11), “Into whatsoever
town or village ye enter—remain in it till ye go out of it.”
Mark vii. 27, 28. The Lord answers the Syro‐Phoenician woman, “Let the
children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children’s bread,
and to cast it unto the dogs.” The woman answers, “Yes, Lord; yet the dogs
under the table eat of the children’s crumbs.” The meaning is, God gives
His grace and mercy first to the Jews (the children); and this must not be
taken from the Jews to be given to the heathen (the dogs). True, answers
the woman; but the heathen do partake of the blessings that overflow from
the portion of the Jews.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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