198 LIEUT.-COL. G. MACKINLAY, ON SOME LUCAN PROBLEMS. 



journey to Jerusalem, which was not undertaken till the next 

 winter a.d. 28-9. Consequently a greater Omission of tivelve 

 months elapsed between the verses 21 and 22 of Luke xiii of 

 all the events contained in Matthew xiii, 34, to xviii, 35.* In 

 other words, the great Omission in Luke (A) is intensified by a 

 greater one in Luke (B). 



As the Omission in Luke (B) is of greater length than the 

 other, there can be no ground for any idea of a suggested 

 mistake in copying or in reference, because there is no oppor- 

 tunity in it for confusing the accounts of the two feedings of 

 the multitudes or the two mentions of the name of Bethsaida. 

 On the contrary the inference to be drawn from the employ- 

 ment of this second (greater) Omission is surely that there is 

 a design to draw decided attention to a definite meaning for 

 the other, the so-called great Omission (Luke ix, 17, 18) in 

 Luke (A). We must remember that a good historian, who 

 makes a skilful use of the materials at his disposal, may some- 

 times effect his purpose by his omissions as well as by his 

 statements ; just as a skilful artist will at times draw a veil of 

 cloud or shadow over one part of his picture in order to 

 strongly emphasize some other feature to which he wishes to draw 

 special attention. In accord with this view we may remark, 

 that if the great Omission represents the cloud or shadow, the 

 events and sayings which are not recordedf are not of importance 

 for the main object of the Evangelist, as they do not touch at 

 all upon the coming Death of the Lord. It is true that the 

 cloud of the greater Omission veils some prophecies of the 

 coming Passion, but they have already been recorded in Luke 

 (A).J In each case the cloud lifts at a point when the clearest 

 light shines on the sad preliminaries of the fateful climax. 



We are now in a position to consider the resemblances in the 

 arrangements of the narratives a little more fully ; these are 

 strongly affected by the great and greater Omissions. Both 

 Luke (A) and Luke (B) begin as we have already noticed with 

 extracts from the Sermon on the Mount, these are followed in 

 each case by the record of certain incidents combining to form 

 an introduction. We may notice a gradation in the introductions, 

 the first one in Luke (A) covers a period of about ten months 

 (see diagram); that in Luke (B) is curtailed to only seven, 



* CorrespondiDg to an Omission of all contained in Mark iv, 33, to 

 ix, 50. 



t Mark vi, 45, to viii, 26. 

 % Luke ix, 22-45. 



