1. Want of order: it is made up of a string of episodes and anecdotes, and of sayings manifestly unconnected.
2. The order of events is wholly different from that in Matthew, Luke and John.
3. Both the sayings and the doings of Jesus are related in it.
4. It contains no long discourses, like the Gospel of St. Matthew, arranged in systematic order.
5. It contains many incidents which point to St. Peter as the authority for them, and recall his preaching.
To this belong—the manner in which the Gospel opens with the baptism of John, just as St. Peter’s address (Acts x. 37‐41) begins with that event also; the many little incidents mentioned which give token of having been related by an eye‐witness, and in which the narrative of St. Matthew is deficient.(271) St. Mark’s Gospel is also rich in indications of the feelings of the people toward Jesus, such as an eye‐witness must have observed,(272) and of notices of movements of the body—small significant acts, which could not escape one present who described what he had seen.(273)
That the composer of St. Matthew’s Gospel made use of the material out of which St. Mark compiled his, that is, of the memorabilia of St. Peter, is evident. Whole passages of St. Mark’s Gospel occur word for word, or nearly so, in the Gospel of St. Matthew.(274)
Moreover, it is apparent that sometimes the author of St. Matthew’s Gospel misunderstood the text. A few instances must suffice here.
Mark ii. 18: “And the disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting. And they came to him and said to him, Why do the disciples of John, and the disciples of the Pharisees, fast, and thy disciples fast not?” It is clear that it was then a fasting season, which the disciples of Jesus were not observing. The “they” who came to him does not mean “the disciples of John and of the Pharisees,” but certain other persons. Καὶ ἔρχονται is so used in St. Mark’s Gospel in several places, like the French “on venait.”
But the compiler of St. Matthew’s Gospel did not understand this use of the verb without a subject expressed, and he made “the disciples of John” ask the question.
Mark vi. 10: Ὅπου ἂν εἰσέλθητε εἰς οἰκίαν, ἐκεῖ μένετε ἕως ἄν ἐξέλθητε ἐκεῖθεν. That is, “Wherever (_i.e._ in whatsoever town or village) ye enter into a house, therein remain (i.e. in that house) till ye go away thence (_i.e._ from that city or village).” By leaving out the word _house_, Matthew loses the sense of the command (x. 11), “Into whatsoever town or village ye enter—remain in it till ye go out of it.”