I believe it has been about a year since my last post on the "Synoptic Problem." Until now, I have concentrated on Sayings material, mostly not present in the Gospel of Mark. In other words, my Layered Matthew Hypothesis is quite incomplete: I haven't really known what to do with Mark. I would now like to shift the focus to some narrative elements in Mark that are also present in one or both of the other synoptics.
One of these narrative elements is Luke's "great omission" of Mark 6:48-8:26 from his Gospel. This portion of Mark includes The Walking on the Water, Healings at Gennesaret, What Defiles a Man, The Syrophoenician Woman, The Healing of Many Sick Persons (Matt.) / of the Deaf Mute (Mark), The Feeding of the Four Thousand, The Pharisees Seek a Sign, and The Blind Man of Bethsaida (the last also omitted by Matthew). There is a lot to say about this "great omission," but one possibility is that Luke used an earlier form of Mark's gospel. We will come back to this.
Other narrative elements are those, within the Triple Tradition, where Matthew and Luke are in agreement against Mark. These, though often called "minor agreements," are really major agreements due to their bearing on the Synoptic Problem.
Let's start with one of the latter:
As suggested by James M. Dawsey (N), an Ur-Markus may have been the source for Lk 19:45-20:47. The || section in Mark is Mk 11:11-12:40 This section includes Jesus in the Temple, The Cursing of the Fig Tree, The Cleansing of the Temple, The Meaning of the Withered Fig Tree, The Question about Authority, The Parable of the Wicked Tenants, The Question concerning Tribute to Caesar, The Question concerning Resurrection, The Great Commandment, About David's Son, and Woes against the Pharisees. Again, we will have plenty to say, but I would like to start by taking a look at The Cleansing of the Temple (Mk 11:15-19 || Lk 19:45-48 || Mt 21:12-13).
The thing that stands out for me here is the phrase "for all the nations" in Mk 11:17 is ABSENT from both Luke and canonical Matthew. It is, however, present in Shem-Tob's Hebrew Matthew, where the original scriptural reference (Isaiah 56:7) is correctly completed as לכל העמים (for all peoples). This inclusion in Hebrew Matthew (and Mark), corresponding to an omission in Luke and Greek Mathew, is worth thinking about.
(to be continued)
Copyright © 2023 by Donald C. Traxler.
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