176 EEV. p. p. FLOUENOY^ D.D., ON BEAEING OF AECH^OLOGICAL 



reasonably be suspected. Here is another, " Jesus saith, there are 

 . . . and there is one . . . alone I am with him. Eaise 

 the stone and there thou shalt find Me, cleave the wood and there 

 am I " — whatever that may mean. Again "Jesus saith, a prophet is 

 not acceptable in his own country, neither doth a physician work 

 cures upon them that know him." That is a saying borrowed from 

 the Gospels with an addition hardly likely to be true. So also is 

 " Jesus saith, a city built upon the top of a high hill and established 

 can neither fall nor be hid." Thus certain "Logia " are supposed to 

 be the basis of the Synoptic Gospels. The following theoretical 

 scheme of composition is taken from the utterances of a theological 

 tutor in the North of England. 



For Mark — 



i. "Q" or the " Logia." 



ii. An Aramaic Mark. 



iii. A Greek or else a second Aramaic Mark. 



iv. The present form of Mark. 



For Luke — 



i. Mark in one of the stages of its development. 



ii. Luke's additions to Mark. 



iii. Chapters I and II from some " distinct source " (including, 



you will notice, the Virgin Birth). 



iv. Luke in its present form. 



For Matthew — 



i. An Aramaic Matthew or the "Logia." 



ii. Some form of Mark. 



iii. The writing of a disciple of Matthew. 



iv. Matthew in its present form. 



I must confess I can see no necessity for all this complication. The 

 peculiarities of language and construction, I think, may all be 

 accounted for when we remember that our Lord probably used a 

 Hebrew Bible, but He usually spoke in Aramaic, and hence must 

 have translated its texts into Aramaic. But the Gospels are written 

 in Greek and the writers must therefore have made their translations 

 of His Aramaic utterances into that language. This I think may 

 account also for many of the supposed variations from the LXX of 

 which we are often told. 



