may say, for the rest of the narrative.  We observe throughout that, in by far the preponderating number of instances, where Matthew differs from the order of Mark, Luke and Mark agree, and where Luke differs from the order of Mark, Matthew and Mark agree.  Thus, for instance, in the account of the healings in Peter’s house and of the paralytic, in the relation of the parables of Mark iv. 1-34 to the storm at sea which follows, of the healing of Jairus’ daughter to that of the Gadarene demoniac and to the mission of the Twelve in the place of Herod’s reflections (Mark vi. 14-16), in the warning against the Scribes and the widow’s mite (Mark xii. 38-44), the second and third Synoptics are allied against the first.  On the other hand, in the call of the four chief Apostles, the death of the Baptist, the walking on the sea, the miracles in the land of Gennesareth, the washing of hands, the Canaanitish woman, the feeding of the four thousand and the discourses which follow, the ambition of the sons of Zebedee, the anointing at Bethany, and several insertions of the third Evangelist in regard to the last events, the first two are allied against him.  While Mark thus receives such alternating support from one or other of his fellow Evangelists, I am not aware of any clear case in which, as to the order of the narratives, they are, united and he is alone, unless we are to reckon as such his insertion of the incident of the fugitive between Matt. xxvi. 56, 57, Luke xxii. 53, 54.

It appears then that, so far as there is an order in the Synoptic Gospels, the normal type of that order is to be found precisely in St. Mark, whom Papias alleges to have written not in order.

But again there seems to be evidence that the Gospel, in the form in which it has come down to us, is not original but based upon another document previously existing.  When we come to examine closely its verbal relations to the other two Synoptics, its normal character is in the main borne out, but still not quite completely.  The number of particulars in which Matthew and Mark agree together against Luke, or Mark and Luke agree together against Matthew, is far in excess of that in which Matthew and Luke are agreed against Mark.  Mark is in most cases the middle term which unites the other two.  But still there remains a not inconsiderable residuum of cases in which Matthew and Luke are in combination and Mark at variance.  The figures obtained by a not quite exact and yet somewhat elaborate computation [Endnote 149:1] are these; Matthew and Mark agree together against Luke in 1684 particulars, Luke and Mark against Matthew in 944, but Matthew and Luke against Mark in only 334.  These 334 instances are distributed pretty evenly over the whole of the narrative.  Thus (to take a case at random) in the parallel narratives Matt. xii. 1-8, Mark ii. 23-28, Luke vi. 1-5 (the plucking of the ears on the Sabbath day), there are fifty-one points (words or parts of words) common