Of the Person Who Said to the Lord, "I Will Follow Thee Whithersoever Thou Goest;" And of the Other Things Connected Therewith, and of the Order in Which They are Recorded by Matthew and Luke

54. He next appends the following statement: "And a certain scribe came and said unto Him, Master, I will follow Thee whithersoever thou goest;" and so on, down to the words, "Let the dead bury their dead."⁸⁸⁸ We have a narrative in similar terms also in Luke. But he inserts it only after a variety of other matters, and without any explicit note of the order of time, but after the fashion of one only bethinking himself of the incident at that point. He leaves us also uncertain whether he brings it in there as something previously omitted, or as an anticipatory notice of something which in actual fact took place subsequently to those incidents by which it is followed in the history. For he proceeds thus: "And it came to pass, that as they went in the way, a certain man said unto Him, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest."⁸⁸⁹ And the Lord's answer is given here in precisely the same terms as we find recited in Matthew. Now, although Matthew tells us that this took place at the time when He gave commandment to depart unto the other side of the lake, and Luke, on the other hand, speaks of an occasion when they "went in the way," there is no necessary contradiction in that. For it may be the case that they went in the way just in order to come to the lake. Again, in what is said about the person who begged to be allowed first to bury his father, Matthew and Luke are thoroughly at one. For the mere fact that Matthew has introduced first the words of the man who made the request regarding his father, and that he has put after that the saying of the Lord, "Follow me," whereas Luke puts the Lord's command, "Follow me," first, and the declaration of the petitioner second, is a matter of no consequence to the sense itself. Luke has also made mention of yet another person, who said, "Lord, I will follow Thee, but let me first bid them farewell which are at home at my house;"⁸⁹⁰ of which individual Matthew says nothing. And thereafter Luke proceeds to another subject altogether, and not to what followed in the actual order of time. The passage runs: "And after these things, the Lord appointed other seventy-two also."⁸⁹¹ That this occurred "after these things" is indeed manifest; but at what length of time after these things the Lord did so is not apparent. Nevertheless, in this interval that took place which Matthew subjoins next in succession. For the same Matthew still keeps up the order of time, and continues his narrative, as we shall now see.

Chapter XXIV.—Of the Lord's Crossing the Lake on that Occasion on Which He Slept in the Vessel, and of the Casting Out of Those Devils Whom He Suffered to Go into the Swine; And of the Consistency of the Accounts Given by Matthew, Mark, and Luke of All that Was Done and Said on These Occasions.

55. "And when He was entered into a ship, His disciples followed Him. And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea." And so the story goes on, until we come to the words, "And He came into His own city."⁸⁹² Those two narratives which are told by Matthew in continuous succession,—namely, that regarding the calm upon the sea after Jesus was roused from His sleep and had commanded the winds, and that concerning the persons who were possessed with the fierce devil, and who brake their bands and were driven into the wilderness,—are given also in like manner by Mark and Luke.⁸⁹³ Some parts of these stories are expressed, indeed, in different terms by the different writers, but the sense remains the same. This is the case, for example, when Matthew represents the Lord to have said, "Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?"⁸⁹⁴ while Mark's version is, "Why are ye fearful? Is it that ye have no faith?"⁸⁹⁵ For Mark's word refers to that perfect faith which is like a grain of mustard seed; and so he, too, speaks in effect of the "little faith." Luke, again, puts it thus: "Where is your faith?"⁸⁹⁶ Accordingly, the whole utterance may perhaps have gone thus: "Why are ye fearful? Where is your faith, O ye of little faith?" And so one of them records one part, and another another part, of the entire saying. The same may be the case with the words spoken by the disciples when they awoke Him. Matthew gives us: "Lord, save us: we perish."⁸⁹⁷ Mark has: "Master, carest Thou not that we perish?"⁸⁹⁸ And Luke says simply, "Master, we perish."⁸⁹⁹ These different expressions, however, convey one and the same meaning on the part of those who were awaking the Lord, and who were wishful to secure their safety. Neither need we inquire which of these several forms is to be preferred as the one actually addressed to Christ. For whether they really used the one or the other of these three phraseologies, or expressed themselves in different words, which are unrecorded by any one of the evangelists, but which were equally well adapted to give the like representation of what was meant, what difference does it make in the fact itself? At the same time, it may also possibly have been the case that, when several parties in concert were trying to awake Him, all these various modes of expression had been used, one by one person, and another by another. In the same way, too, we may deal with the exclamation on the stilling of the tempest, which, according to Matthew, was, "What manner of man is this, that the winds and the sea obey Him?"⁹⁰⁰ according to Mark, "What man, thinkest thou, is this,⁹⁰¹ that both the wind and the sea obey Him?"⁹⁰² and according to Luke, "What man, thinkest thou, is this?⁹⁰³ for He commandeth both the winds and the sea,⁹⁰⁴ and they obey Him." Who can fail to see that the sense in all these forms is quite identical? For the expression, "What man, thinkest thou, is this?" has precisely the same import with the other, "What manner of man is this?"⁹⁰⁵ And where the words "He commandeth" are omitted, it can at least be understood as a matter of course that the obedience is rendered to the person commanding.

56. Moreover, with respect to the circumstance that Matthew states that there were two men who were afflicted with the legion of devils which received permission to go into the swine, whereas Mark and Luke instance only a single individual, we may suppose that one of these parties was a person of some kind of superior notability and repute, whose case was particularly lamented by that district, and for whose deliverance there was special anxiety. With the intention of indicating that fact, two of the evangelists have judged it proper to make mention only of the one person, in connection with whom the fame of this deed had been spread abroad the more extensively and remarkably. Neither should any scruple be excited by the different forms in which the words uttered by the possessed⁹⁰⁶ have been reproduced by the various evangelists. For we may either resolve them all into one and the same thing, or suppose them all to have been actually spoken. Nor, again, should we find any difficulty in the circumstance that with Matthew the address is couched in the plural number, but with Mark and Luke in the singular. For these latter two tell us at the same time, that when the man was asked what was his name, he answered that he was Legion, because the devils were many. Nor, once more, is there any discrepancy between Mark's statement that the herd of swine was round about the mountain,⁹⁰⁷ and Luke's, that they were on the mountain.⁹⁰⁸ For the herd of swine was so great that one portion of it might be on the mountain, and another only round about it. For, as Mark has expressly informed us, there were about two thousand swine.

Chapter XXV.—Of the Man Sick of the Palsy to Whom the Lord Said, "Thy Sins are Forgiven Thee," And "Take Up Thy Bed;" And in Especial, of the Question Whether Matthew and Mark are Consistent with Each Other in Their Notice of the Place Where This Incident Took Place, in So Far as Matthew Says It Happened "In His Own City," While Mark Says It Was in Capharnaum.

57. Hereupon Matthew proceeds with his recital, still preserving the order of time, and connects his narrative in the following manner:—"And He entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into His own city. And, behold, they brought to Him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed;" and so on down to where it is said, "But when the multitude saw it, they marvelled; and glorified God, which had given such power unto men."⁹⁰⁹ Mark and Luke have also told the story of this paralytic. Now, as regards Matthew's stating that the Lord said, "Son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee;" while Luke makes the address run, not as "son," but as "man,"—this only helps to bring out the Lord's meaning more explicitly. For these sins were [thus said to be] forgiven to the "man," inasmuch as the very fact that he was a man would make it impossible for him to say, "I have not sinned;" and at the same time, that mode of address served to indicate that He who forgave sins to man was Himself God. Mark, again, has given the same form of words as Matthew, but he has left out the terms, "Be of good cheer." It is also possible, indeed, that the whole saying ran thus: "Man, be of good cheer: son, thy sins are forgiven thee;" or thus: "Son, be of good cheer: man, thy sins are forgiven thee;" or the words may have been spoken in some other congruous order.

58. A difficulty, however, may certainly arise when we observe how Matthew tells the story of the paralytic after this fashion: "And He entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into His own city. And, behold, they brought to Him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed;" whereas Mark speaks of the incident as taking place not in His own city, which indeed is called Nazareth, but in Capharnaum. His narrative is to the following effect:—"And again He entered into Capharnaum after some days; and it was noised that He was in the house. And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door: and He spake a word⁹¹⁰ unto them. And they came unto Him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four. And when they could not come nigh unto Him for the press, they uncovered the roof where He was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. And when Jesus saw their faith;" and so forth.⁹¹¹ Luke, on the other hand, does not mention the place in which the incident happened, but gives the tale thus: "And it came to pass on a certain day that He was sitting teaching,⁹¹² and there were Pharisees and doctors of the law also sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judæa, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was present to heal them. And, behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy: and they sought means to bring him in, and to lay him before Him. And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went upon the house-top, and let him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus. And when He saw their faith, He said, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee;" and so forth.⁹¹³ The question, therefore, remains one between Mark and Matthew, in so far as Matthew writes of the incident as taking place in the Lord's city;⁹¹⁴ while Mark locates it in Capharnaum. This question would be more difficult to solve if Matthew mentioned Nazareth by name. But, as the case stands, when we reflect that the state of Galilee itself might have been called Christ's city,⁹¹⁵ because Nazareth was in Galilee, just as the whole region which was made up of so many cities⁹¹⁶ is yet called a Roman state;⁹¹⁷ when, further, it is considered that so many nations are comprehended in that city, of which it is written, "Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God;"⁹¹⁸ and also that God's ancient people, though dwelling in so many cities, have yet been spoken of as one house, the house of Israel,⁹¹⁹—who can doubt that [it may be fairly said that] Jesus wrought this work in His own city [or, state], inasmuch as He did it in the city of Capharnaum, which was a city of that Galilee to which He had returned when He crossed over again from the country of the Gerasenes, so that when He came into Galilee He might correctly be said to have come into His own city [or, state], in which ever town of Galilee He might happen to be? This explanation may be vindicated more particularly on the ground that Capharnaum itself held a position of such eminence in Galilee that it was reckoned to be a kind of metropolis. But even were it altogether illegitimate to take the city of Christ in the sense either of Galilee itself, in which Nazareth was situated, or of Capharnaum, which was distinguished as in a certain sense the capital of Galilee, we might still affirm that Matthew has simply passed over all that happened after Jesus came into His own city until He reached Capharnaum, and that he has simply tacked on the narrative of the healing of the paralytic at this point; just as the writers do in many instances, leaving unnoticed much that intervenes, and, without any express indication of the omissions they are making, proceeding precisely as if what they subjoin, followed actually in literal succession.⁹²⁰