confuses these two opposite frames of mind, and has, “one ran and filled a sponge . . . and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone" (xv 36). The account of Matthew is the intelligible form, that of Mark is contradictory. Thus in a dozen small details of words, which do not depend on any general tendency to amplify or condense, we see that Matthew has uniformly the more probable text, and Mark has some misunderstanding of that, or some anachronism of a later writer who was not personally aware of the facts. And in general, when comparing the versions, we find that Matthew has a more probable text than that of Mark. We do not wish here to use this evidence for constructive purposes; it is only given to shew that verbal criticism cannot prove that Mark has the earlier text and that Matthew has modified it. |