Chapter XXI.—Of the Order in Which the Narrative Concerning Peter’s Mother-In-Law is Introduced.

51. Matthew proceeds in the following terms: “And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, He saw his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever. And He touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them.”380    Matt. viii. 14, 15. Matthew has not indicated the date of this incident; that is to say, he has specified neither before what event nor after what occurrence it took place. For we are certainly under no necessity of supposing that, because it is recorded after a certain event, it must also have happened in actual matter of fact after that event. And unquestionably, in this case, we are to understand that he has introduced for record here something which he had omitted to notice previously. For Mark brings in this narrative before his account of that cleansing of the leper which he would appear to have placed after the delivery of the sermon on the mount;381    Cf. what is said above (chap. xix. 43) as to the note of time implied in the statement (Mark i. 39), that He preached in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and cast out devils. [The order of Mark is probably correct.—R.] which discourse, however, he has left unrelated. And thus, too, Luke382    Luke iv. 38, 39. inserts this story of Peter’s mother-in-law after an occurrence383    Referring, apparently, to the casting out of the unclean spirit (Mark i. 23, etc.; Luke iv. 33, etc.). which it follows likewise in Mark’s version, but also before that lengthened discourse, which has been reproduced by him, and which may appear to be one with the sermon which Matthew states to have been delivered on the mount. For of what consequence is it in what place any of them may give his account; or what difference does it make whether he inserts the matter in its proper order, or brings in at a particular point what was previously omitted, or mentions at an earlier stage what really happened at a later, provided only that he contradicts neither himself nor a second writer in the narrative of the same facts or of others? For as it is not in one’s own power, however admirable and trustworthy may be the knowledge he has once obtained of the facts, to determine the order in which he will recall them to memory (for the way in which one thing comes into a person’s mind before or after another is something which proceeds not as we will, but simply as it is given to us), it is reasonable enough to suppose that each of the evangelists believed it to have been his duty to relate what he had to relate in that order in which it had pleased God to suggest to his recollection the matters he was engaged in recording. At least this might hold good in the case of those incidents with regard to which the question of order, whether it were this or that, detracted nothing from evangelical authority and truth.

52. But as to the reason why the Holy Spirit, who divideth to every man severally as He will,384    1 Cor. xii. 11. and who therefore undoubtedly, with a view to the establishing of their books on so distinguished an eminence of authority, also governs and rules the minds of the holy men themselves in the matter of suggesting the things they were to commit to writing, has left one historian at liberty to construct his narrative in one way, and another in a different fashion, that is a question which any one may look into with pious consideration, and for which, by divine help, the answer also may possibly be found. That, however, is not the object of the work which we have taken in hand at present. The task we have proposed to ourselves is simply to demonstrate that not one of the evangelists contradicts either himself or his fellow-historians, whatever be the precise order in which he may have had the ability or may have preferred to compose his account of matters belonging to the doings and sayings of Christ; and that, too, at once in the case of subjects identical with those recorded by others, and in the case of subjects different from these. For this reason, therefore, when the order of times is not apparent, we ought not to feel it a matter of any consequence what order any of them may have adopted in relating the events. But wherever the order is apparent, if the evangelist then presents anything which seems to be inconsistent with his own statements, or with those of another, we must certainly take the passage into consideration, and endeavour to clear up the difficulty.

CAPUT XXI. De socru Petri quo ordine narratum sit.

51. Sequitur Matthaeus et dicit: Et cum venisset Jesus in domum Petri, vidit socrum ejus jacentem et febricitantem: et tetigit manum ejus, et dimisit eam febris; et surrexit, et ministrabat eis (Matth. VIII, 14, 15). Hoc quando factum sit, id est, post quid vel ante quid, non expressit Matthaeus. Non enim post quod narratur, post hoc etiam factum necesse est intelligatur. Nimirum tamen iste hoc recoluisse intelligitur, quod prius omiserat. Nam id Marcus narrat (Marc. I, 29-31, antequam illud de leproso mundato commemoret, 1102 quod post sermonem in monte habitum, de quo ipse tacuit, videtur interposuisse. Itaque et Lucas post hoc factum narrat de socru Petri (Luc. IV, 38, 39.), post quod et Marcus, ante sermonem etiam ipse, quem prolixum interposuit, qui potest idem videri quem dicit habitum in monte Matthaeus. Quid autem interest quis quo loco ponat, sive quod ex ordine inserit, sive quod omissum recolit, sive quod postea factum ante praeoccupat; dum tamen non adversetur eadem vel alia narranti, nec sibi, nec alteri? Quia enim nullius in potestate est, quamvis optime fideliterque res cognitas, quo quisque ordine recordetur (quid enim prius posteriusve homini veniat in mentem, non est ut volumus, sed ut datur); satis probabile est quod unusquisque Evangelistarum eo se ordine credidit debuisse narrare, quo voluisset Deus ea ipsa quae narrabat ejus recordationi suggerere, in eis duntaxat rebus, quarum ordo, sive ille, sive ille sit, nihil minuit auctoritati veritatique evangelicae.

52. Cur autem Spiritus sanctus dividens propria unicuique prout vult (I Cor. XII, 11), et ideo mentes quoque sanctorum propter Libros in tanto auctoritatis culmine collocandos, in recolendo quae scriberent sine dubio gubernans et regens, alium sic, alium vero sic narrationem suam ordinare permiserit, quisquis pia diligentia quaesiverit, divinitus adjutus poterit invenire. Hoc tamen non est hujus operis munus, quod nunc suscepimus, tantum ut demonstremus Evangelistas neque sibi neque inter se repugnare, quolibet ordine, vel easdem res, vel alias factorum dictorumque Christi unusquisque eorum potuerit volueritve narrare. Quapropter ubi ordo temporum non apparet, nihil nostra interesse debet, quem narrandi ordinem quilibet eorum tenuerit: ubi autem apparet, si quid moverit quod sibi aut alteri repugnare videatur, utique considerandum et enodandum est.