(ε) The later Parables.—Similarly the three par- ables of 2178-2214, centring in that of the Vineyard common to the Synopties, define the Church’s rela- tions to Judaism. In the first two of these parables we get the phrase ἡ Bac. τοῦ θεοῦ, so rare in Mt, and perhaps a mark of the later stratum in its Logia.
In 12%> the phrase may be due to parallelism with ἐν πνεύ- ματι θεοῦ in 25%; and in 19°4 it seems to come from Mk 1034 In 2181. 48, however, we can only suppose that this Helleni ov un-Hebraic expression (so Dalman, Die Worte Jesu, 155) marks the secondary, rather than Matthiean, element in the tradition reflected in Mt, to whose own usage ἡ Bao. τῶν οὐρανῶν can by no means be exclusively traced.
The parable of the Marriage Feast is partly paralleled by Lk 144, and is an old Logian ele- ment which has undergone change in two lines of tradition. Mt seems to have it in a late form; for it has gained an appendix, on the Wedding- garment and the fewness of those who respond and are elect. And even the part parallel to Lk adds the feature of insult and death visited on the king’s messengers, resulting in vengeance on the murderers and their city—surely an echo of the experiences and expectations of the later apostolic age, though not necessarily after, rather than just before A.D. 70 (ef. Mk 12%, Lk 20118) Mt 2141-4 for the like as already foretold in prophecy). We shall return to the subject in discussing Mt’s date. Meantime this impression of the absolute rejection of the national religious system is con- firmed by the great anti-Pharisaic discourse in ch. 23—an excellent case of didactic compilation, the bulk at least of which our Mt found ready to his hand, though the seven distinct Woes may betray his schematism. We must now turn aside, for the moment, to consider the other chief factor of Mt, the narrative sections parallel to Mk.
(2) Mt’s relation to Mk.—To begin with asimple case, namely one which involves no other connected source like the Logia, Christ’s walking on the sea may be taken (Mt 14", Mk 6##). Here we observe slight omissions—aérod (followed by addition of αὐτόν), τὸ πέραν πρὸς Βηθσαιδάν, αὐτός ; insertions— κατ᾽ ἰδίαν, μαθηταί (to compensate for αὐτούς in a clause omitted), ἀπὸ τοῦ φόβου ἔκραξαν in place of ἀνέκραξαν, [ὃ Incovs]; use of favourite forms of a word—rots ὄχλους for τὸν ὄχλον, ἀνέβη for ἀπῆλθεν; changes in construction—i.e. ἕως οὗ ἀπολύσῃ for ἕως . . . ἀπολύει, ὑπὸ τ. κυμάτων for ἐν τῷ ἐλαύνειν, τετάρτῃ φυλακῇ for περὶ rer. φυλακήν, ἦλθεν for ἔρχεται, περιπατῶν ἐπὶ τήν (cf. 39. only Mt) for ἐπὶ τῆς, λέγων for x. Aéyer—sometimes involying transposition of a word, like ἐταράχθησαν (λέγοντες, x.7-A.) in 35; paraphrase—#5n σταδίους πολλοὺς ἀπὸ γῆς ἀπεῖχεν for ἐν μέσῳ τ. θαλάσσης ; omission of a clause—x. ἤθελεν παρελθεῖν αὐτούς, Mk 64, πάντες γὰρ αὐτὸν εἶδον, ™.
In the general result Mt’s Greek is smoother and better than Mk’s, though less vivid; also the
300 MATTHEW, GOSPEL OF
changes appear for the most part involuntary, due to memoriter rewriting of section by section after perusal, rather than to line for line copying.* This less mechanical conception of the process by which Mk passes into Mt is not only most likely, but helps to explain much elsewhere. In fact it secures the advantages claimed for the purely oral theory, without sacrificing what gives to the documentary theory its strength. The section affords other lessons. Peter’s walking on the water (3!) is an insertion from tradition,t and points to a factor which must be reckoned with throughout, e.g. in 2786 2811-1ὁ as also in relation to the parables peculiar to Mt. And, finally, the description of the effect upon the disciples’ minds is put in a different form from Mk—one reflecting less upon their slowness of heart and pointing more directly the moral of this Gospel (v.*, οἵ, 161% 275), The phrase full of adoration, ‘Truly thou art Son of God,’ is here anachronistic in view of 161, Mk 8% These various points might be illustrated from the next few sections. But space forbids : and so we turn to apply our principles to the parts where Logia and Mk may be thought to blend.
(d) Setting of the Sermon on the Mount.—Mt 458-- 51 is crucial for the evangelist’s methods. Is his relation to Mk here determined by other narrative material, oral or written, or simply by his own plan for the use of his didactic or Logian matter?
Historically arbitrary as the latter hypothesis would argue Mt’s eclectic use of Mk to be, it is yet probably correct. For in fact all close study of Mt shows its historie interest to be quite sub- ordinate to the interpretative, the setting forth in orderly fashion of the salient features of Messiah’s activity and teaching. Here, then, Mt’s prime care is to find a fit point of contact with the traditional narrative—of which Mk is the form before him—for the general Sermon on the king- dom. As it stood in the forefront of the Logian tradition, so should it stand in a full written Gospel as Mt conceived it. Starting from Mk 1% (Mt 7"), he readapted Mk 315, where Jesus ‘ascends the mountain’ in order to associate with Himself an inner circle of disciples; assuming that such a call would imply a prior formal exposition of the nature of the new kingdom. And so far he may have followed tradition—a tradition, too, which knew of a discourse on a mountain. But, this identification once adopted, Mt carried out his use of Mk with great freedom.