The evidence for Markan priority is the following:
1. If Mark copied Matthew or Luke, why did he leave out so much of the material in these two gospels? He would have left out the birth narratives, the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord’s Prayer, resurrection appearances, and many other important stories. It doesn’t seem likely that Mark would choose to copy one of these gospels and leave out that much material.
One of Mark’s emphases throughout his gospel is Jesus as the “Teacher” (see 2:13; 4:1-2; 6:2; 8:31; 12:35, 38, and more). However, Mark has a far less percentage of Jesus’ teachings in his gospel than does Matthew or Luke. It doesn’t make sense that Mark would omit key passages of teaching such as the Sermon on the Mount.
One could perhaps argue that Mark wanted to create an abbreviated version of Matthew or Luke. However, this is highly unlikely. Though Mark is a shorter gospel, its pericopes (stories) are longer than those of Matthew and Luke. If Mark were abbreviating, he wouldn’t add extra length to the pericopes.
2. Mark has an inferior writing style. Although Mark’s writing was inspired by the Holy Spirit, it is still grammatically awkward in a few places. It is easier to think of Matthew or Luke correcting grammatically awkward sentences in Mark than vise versa.
For example, Mark has redundant expressions such as, “At evening, when the sun had set, they brought to him all who were sick . . .”, Mark 1:32. He doesn’t need to say both “at evening” and “when the sun had set”. The parallel in Matthew only says, “When evening had come” (8:16), and Luke only says, “When the sun was setting” (4:40).
Mark also tends to use the historical present when writing. Matthew and Luke tend use the aorist, which is less grammatically awkward.
Mark also uses slang expressions such as such as, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” The word Mark uses for “bed” is somewhat slag. Matthew and Luke use a better term for “bed”.
Mark also uses Aramaic expressions throughout his gospel (5:41, 7:11, 14:36). After using them, he has to explain them to his audience. Matthew and Luke avoid this and simply use Greek.
Mark also uses an aorist middle in 10:20, which is somewhat grammatically awkward. Matthew and Luke correct this and use an aorist active.
I will continue this list in the next blog.
