188 LIEUT. -COL. G. MACKIXLAY, OX SOME LUCAN PROBLEMS. 



have been put forward at different times ; but the following is 

 in broad outline, the scheme which is very generally accepted by 

 scholars and Bible students at the present time. Without 

 necessarily accepting it as a perfect statement of the case, it 

 forms a convenient working hypothesis for our investigations. 



The Gospel of Mark is generally believed to be the oldest of 

 the synoptics ; rather more than three-quarters of Matthew and 

 rather more than two-thirds* of Luke are in close verbal corre- 

 spondence with it, and they are thought to be based upon it. A 

 portion of the remaining third part of Luke has close verbal 

 resemblance with the parts of Matthew, which are not .similar to 

 Mark : this portion of Luke, therefore, is thought to be founded 

 upon Matthew's Gospel, or possibly on some unknown docu- 

 ment, called (Q) for brevity, which may have served as a source 

 for both Matthew and Luke. The remaining portion of Luke, 

 which is not similar to either Mark or Matthew (though, of 

 course, it may be similar to (Q)) is considered to come from 

 some source or sources special to Luke. 



The sources of St. Luke's Gospel thus appear to be three — 

 (1) Marcan, (2) Matthaean (or Q), and (3) Special Lucan. 



As such a large proportion of the Gospel of Luke corresponds 

 verbally with Mark, it is all the more strange to find that 

 sources other than Mark are continuously employed in the 

 numerous consecutive chapters (eight and a half, and one and 

 two-thirds respectively) of the so-called great " and " lesser 

 Insertions" (Luke ix, 51, to xviii, 14, and vi, 20, to viii, 3). It 

 is also very striking that all record of the incidents and sayings 

 in the considerable period covered by Mark vi, 45, to viii, 26, is 

 omitted by Luke. Not only is tliere a disuse of the Marcan 

 narrative as in the cases of the two Insertions, but no 

 information is supplied from any other source of the events and 

 sayings of the period to which the Marcan chapters refer. 

 This so-called " great Omission " is most abrupt, it occurs between 

 the verses 17 and 18 of Luke ix. 



These then are the special problems which we propose to 

 investigate — 



{a) The fjreat Insertion {Lv.'ke ix, 51, to xviii, 14-). 



* Three limitations to St. Luke's use of St. Mark's Gospel, p. 29. Rev. Sir 

 John Hawkins, Bart., M.A., D.D., in Studies in the Si/noptic Problem 

 (abbreviated title S.S.F.). Edited by Eev. Canon Sanday, M.A., D.D., 

 1911. 



