The whole matter falls at the same time very ob- viously into two great blocks of narrative—the one occupied with the Galilean Ministry (14-9), the other with the Last Week at Jerusalem (11)-165). There is a difference also between the two. In the first the narrative, while always vivid and at some points full, is often compressed. In the second it is minute, circumstantial, and more of the nature of a journal. The intervening story, including the journeys in Perwa and Judwa, the words on divorce, reward, and the purpose of Christ’s coming, the incidents of the blessing of the children, the question of the rich inquirer, the request of the sons of Zebedee, and the cure of Bartimeus, is rapidly disposed of.
There is more of a scheme in the second Gospel than is at first surmised. But it is a simple, natural scheme, corresponding with the earliest description which we have of this evangelist’s method, viz. that given by Papias, which we shall afterwards consider. Christ’s work is seen to follow a certain plan, beginning with the preach- ing of the largest truths of the kingdom, first in the towns in the vicinity of the Sea of Tiberias, and then throughout Galilee generally; moving on through intervals of seclusion and periods of de- cision ; and fulfilling itself in the stated training of the Twelve for their future vocation and the final crisis. Christ’s teaching is also seen to proceed by certain stages, first in the way of synagogue ad- dresses and free discourse by the lake side or in the interior parts; then in the specific form of
MARK, GOSPEL OF
250
MARK, GOSPEL OF
parabolic instruction; and, finally, in the com-| the synagogue, the journey through Galilee, the
munication to the Twelve of the deeper mysteries of the kingdom, especially those relating to the Passion.
ii. SELECTION AND ARRANGEMENT OF MATTER. —Like the other Synoptists, Mark carries us through the successive periods of our Lord’s course and experience—His first popularity, with the shadow of opposition in its train; the formation of a body of apostles; the rising enmity of the ruling classes; the combination of hostile forces, and the result in the crucifixion. But he does this with a difference, which is due partly to his object and partly to his sources. He deals primarily with Christ’s public ministry. He passes by, therefore, much that appears in the other Synoptists—the preliminary history, the genealogy, the circumstances of our Lord’s birth, infancy, and years of privacy. He omits the greater discourses. He includes, indeed, the eschatological discourse (13!%7), but he has no place even for the Sermon on the Mount, and does little more than mention the denunciations on the scribes and Pharisees. He is equally meagre in his report of the parables. Of the parables proper he records only four—the Sower (4%), the Fruit-bearing Earth (4°), the Mustard Seed (4%2), and the Wicked Husbandmen (12"), He gives none, therefore, belonging to the inter- mediate period, and only one belonging to the later. Of the minor or germ parables also he has only about as many—the new patch on the old cloth (22!) ; the new wine in the old skins (233); the kingdom and the house divided against themselves (3228),
He is concerned with the acts rather than the sayings of Jesus, and especially with those which show Him in His power. He reports, therefore, a considerable number of the miracles. The instances which he gives are those of the demoniac in the synagogue (18), Peter’s wife’s mcther (150-31), the leper (144°), the paralytic (25:15), the man with the withered hand (8'), the stilling of the storm (4%), the Gadarene demoniac (5'”), the woman with the issve of blood and the daughter of Jairus (574%), the 5000 and the walking on the sea (692), the Syrophcenician woman’s daughter and the deaf mute (724%), the 4000 and the blind man at Bethsaida (81:9. 6), the lunatic boy (9), Bartimzeus (104), and the withering of the fig- tree (114). Of these eighteen, most are of the class of healing miracles. Most also belong to the period before the Transfiguration.
In the construction of the narrative Mark ap-
pears to place some things in bold relief, particu-
larly the crisis of the first intimation of Christ’s destined death, and His various periods of retire- ment: His withdrawals to ‘a solitary place’ after the early cures (1%), to ‘desert places’ after the cleansing of the leper (1%), to the lake after the healing of the man with the withered hand (37), to the villages after His rejection at Nazareth (6°), to ‘a desert place’ after the murder of the Baptist (6°), to the borders of Tyre and Sidon after the opposition of the Pharisaic party (7%), to the neighbourhood of Csarea Philippi after the cure οὗ the blind man (827), to the range of Hermor. efter the first open prediction of His Passion (#*\, to Bethany after the triumphal entry (11:1), and again after the cleansing of the temple (111%), and yet again after the dis- course on the end of things (14%). The added paragraph on the Ascension also reads like the story of the last of His withdrawals (161°).
While the mass of Mark’s matter is also found in Matthew and Luke, there are some interesting paragraphs which he has in common with only one of the two. The incidents of the demoniac of