touched with sparing hand. Some narratives in which these faults appear very obtrusively, ¢.g., the conversation about the leaven of the Pharisees, the ambitious request of James and John, and the anointing in Bethany, are omitted, as is also the flight of all the disciples at the apprehension of their Master. The weak faith of the disciples is very mildly characterised. ‘ Where is your faith?” asks Jesus in the storm on the lake, in Luke’s version of the story, instead of uttering the reproachful word: “ Why are ye cowardly ? Have ye not yet faith?” Their failure to watch in the garden of Gethsemane is apologetically described as sleeping for sorrow. In his portraiture of the Lord Jesus the evangelist gives prominence to the attributes of power, benevolence, and saintliness. The pictorial effect is brought out by omission, emphasis, and understatement. Among the omissions are the realistic word about that which defileth, about “ dogs” in the story of tre woman of Canaan which is wholly wanting, and the awful cry op the Cross: “ΜΥ God, my God!” Among the things emphasised are those features in acts of healing which show the greatness of Christ’s might and of the benefit conferred. Peter’s mother-in-law suffers from a great fever; and the leper is full of leprosy. The hand restored on the Sabbath is the right hand, the centurion’s servant is one dear to him, the son of the widow of Nain is an only son, the daughter of Jairus an only daughter, the epileptic boy at the hill of Transfiguration an only child. The holiness of Jesus is made conspicuous by the prominence given to prayer in connection with critical occasions, and by under- statement where the incidents related might to ill-instructed minds seem to compromise that essential characteristic. Luke’s narratives of the cleansing of the temple and the agony in Gethsemane may be referred to as striking illustrative instances of the latter. To the same category may be referred the treatment by Luke of the anti- Pharisaic element in Christ’s teaching. Much is omitted, and what is retained is softened by being given, much of it, not as spoken about, but as spoken to, Pharisees by Jesus as a guest in their houses.!
2. The influence of the Christian consciousness of the time in which he wrote is traceable not only in Luke’s presentation of the characters of Jesus and His disciples, but in his account of Christ’s teaching. He seems to have ip view|throughout the use of the Lord’s words for present guidance. Weizsacker has endeavoured to analyse the didactic element in the third Gospel into doctrinal
1 Luke vii. 36-50; xi. 37«52; xiv. 1-24.