LIEUT.-COL. G. MACKINLAY, ON SOME LUCAN PROBLEMS. 209 



is made of a class of miracles, which might seem to detract from uhe 

 dignity of Christ. It has to be remembered on the other hand 

 that St. John's Gospel contains accounts of gradual miracles in 

 which means are employed (John ii, 7, fF. ix, 6, ff.). It is evident 

 that the writer of the fourth Gospel does not consider such miracles 

 detracting from the dignity of Christ. 



(h) On p. 198 the words about St. Luke's purpose shown by his 

 Omissions as well as by his statements are very interesting. His 

 omission of, 



(1) The flight into Egypt, 



(2) The appearances of Christ after His Kesurrection in Galilee^ 



(3) The retirement of St. Paul into Arabia, 



are instances of omissions which may be accounted for on the ground 

 of their being in a sense diversions from the main subject, on 

 account of the change of scene involved. 



(c) The same feature in lingering over Our Lords' teaching, 

 before the narrative of the great tragedy " is found in Matthew 

 xxiv, XXV, and in John xii to xviii. 



The Eev. Canon R. B. Girdlestone writes : Colonel Mackinlay 

 deserves all our thanks for his efl*ort to give reverent scientific 

 treatment to the Gospels. I doubt, however, if we have attained a 

 complete solution. Certain first principles are to be remembered. 



1. We have only a tiny fraction of what our Lord said and did. 



2. He probably often repeated his words and deeds under 



similar circumstances. 



3. St. Luke had special qualifications which he sets forth in hia 



Preface, moreover, he was a trained observer. 



4. St. Luke and St. Mark were with St. Paul at the end of 



Paul's career, and perhaps St. Peter (the true author of 

 Mark's Gospel) was there also. 



5. Perhaps the tradition is right that St. Luke was a proselyte, 



a Syrian and one of the seventy. 



At any rate he had his own methods of writing. He hardly ever 

 uses notes of time. There are about twenty places in which the 

 Authorized Version puts " then," where St. Luke uses "but" or "and." 

 He condenses, repeats, groups, and follows the order of thought, regard- 

 less of time or place. Even such an expression as "after these 

 things " simply means " on a subsequent occasion," and his " next 



p 



