(List Continued)
4. Mark has potential theological difficulties that Matthew and Luke seem to say clearer. For example, Mark 10:18 says, “So Jesus said to Him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.’” This could potentially be interpreted to mean that Jesus is claiming not to be divine. Mark of course doesn’t mean this, but it is still potentially confusing. Matthew corrects this by saying, “Why do you ask me about what is good?”.
5. There is a lack of Matthew-Luke agreements against Mark. This happens in both wording and ordering of pericopes. It makes sense to conclude that Matthew and Luke copied Mark independently of each other. As they copied Mark independently, they chose to disagree with him in places.
6. Matthew and Luke show consistent redactions of Mark’s material and not vise versa. “Redaction” means that the author (Matthew or Luke) added something to the gospel to fit there particular emphasis. We see this often in Matthew and Luke’s use of Mark. However, if Mark copied Matthew or Luke, we would see almost none of this happening.
All of this evidence makes a strong case that Mark did not copy Matthew or Luke, but rather Matthew and Luke copied Mark. Assuming that this is true, I will not move on to discuss the relationship between Matthew and Luke.
