On the premise that Matthew was published coincident with the events in Acts 10–11 and Mark shortly thereafter, with full knowledge of Matthew’s Greek text, I have been evaluating the passages which Mark chose to resequence–from Matthew–into earlier settings within his own narrative. Refer to “Mark’s resequenced episodes, assuming Matthean…
Which of Mark’s episodes were resequenced, on the assumption that Mark had Matthew’s Gospel available to him? For this exercise, I am excluding some of the teaching events, such as the parables, as Jesus may well have taught things at multiple times. Plus, the narrative summary statements are also excluded.…
In a prior blog post, “The two-part story of the withered fig tree,” I argued that the Matthean and the Markan accounts can be harmonized by realizing that Mark is employing a flash-forward. According to Matthew’s account, it is after the temple cleansing that (1) Jesus curses the fig tree,…
Matthew, Mark and Luke: A Study in the Order and Interrelation of the Synoptic Gospels. By John Chapman. Edited by John M. T. Barton. London: Longmans, Green, and Company, 1937, 312 pp. Last month I was privileged to acquire a copy of John Chapman’s significant work on the order and…
How do assumptions regarding the publication date of Matthew’s Gospel and Matthean priority affect our interpretation of the book? Previously, we looked at how J. Oliver Buswell’s belief that Matthew was published after Paul’s writings impacted his identification of the elect in the Olivet Discourse. Today, we consider the identity…
In 1961, S. Vernon McCasland published an article entitled “Matthew Twists the Scriptures,” in which he charges the author of Matthew with distorting not only his Old Testament sources, but also his contemporary sources. Brazenly, McCasland begins his accusation by redirecting the expressed concern of 2 Peter 3:16 at the…
A frequent refrain from scholars is that either none of the Gospels offer a fully chronologically-oriented account of the life of Christ or that it is Mark which is most likely to be chronological. In some cases, the determination appears to be tied to a favored theory of Gospel origins—that…
In this “Synoptic Sequences” series, we are working through some of the sequential differences which one finds when comparing Matthew’s Gospel to Mark’s Gospel, with the hope that the differences can be explained in a way that is consistent with my early Matthew proposition. Therefore, we’re approaching these sequential differences…
In this “Synoptic Sequences” series, we are working through some of the sequential differences which one finds when comparing Matthew’s Gospel to Mark’s Gospel, with the hope that the differences can be explained in a way that is consistent with my early Matthew proposition. Therefore, we’re approaching these sequential differences…
Am starting to frame-up some ideas for another paper. The tentative question: If Matthew’s Gospel was indeed the first Gospel to be published, while the sequence of events was relatively fresh in the minds of many of its readers, then would Matthew not have been particularly concerned with presenting the…