Chapter XXXVI.—Of Another Question Which Demands Our Consideration, Namely, Whether, in Passing from the Account of the Man Whose Withered Hand Was Restored, These Three Evangelists Proceed to Their Next Subjects in Such a Way as to Create No Contradictions in Regard to the Order of Their Narrations.

83. Matthew continues his narrative, connecting it in the following manner with what precedes: “But the Pharisees went out and held a council against Him, how they might destroy Him. But when Jesus knew it, He withdrew Himself from thence: and great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all; and charged them that they should not make Him known: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet Esaias, saying;” and so forth, down to where it is said, “And in His name shall the Gentiles trust.”510    Matt. xii. 14–21. [Sperabunt, “hope,” as in Revised Version.—R.] He is the only one that records these facts. The other two have advanced to other themes. Mark, it is true, seems to some extent to have kept by the historical order: for he tells us how Jesus, on discovering the malignant disposition which was entertained toward Him by the Jews, withdrew to the sea along with His disciples, and that then vast multitudes flocked to Him, and He healed great numbers of them.511    Mark iii. 7–12. But, at the same time, it is not quite clear at what precise point He begins to pass to a new subject, different from what would have followed in strict succession. He leaves it uncertain whether such a transition is made at the point where he tells us how the multitudes gathered about Him (for if that was the case now, it might equally well have been the case at some other time), or at the point where He says that “He goeth up into a mountain.” It is this latter circumstance that Luke also appears to notice when he says, “And it came to pass in those days, that He went out into a mountain to pray.”512    Luke vi. 12. For by the expression “in those days,” he makes it plain enough that the incident referred to did not occur in immediate succession upon what precedes.513    [The Sermon on the Mount was delivered during the withdrawal here referred to.—R.]

CAPUT XXXVI. Considerandum utrum ab isto cujus arida manus sanata est, ita digrediantur hi tres Evangelistae ut in nullo sibi adversentur ipso narrationis ordine.

83. Sequitur Matthaeus, ita contexens narrationem suam: Exeuntes autem Pharisaei consilium faciebant adversus eum, quomodo eum perderent. Jesus autem sciens, recessit inde; et secuti sunt eum multi, et curavit eos omnes: et praecepit eis ne manifestum eum facerent. Ut adimpleretur quod dictum est per Isaiam prophetam dicentem, et caetera, usque ad illud ubi ait. Et in nomine ejus gentes sperabunt (Matth. XII, 14-21). Hoc solus iste commemorat, illi duo in alia perrexerunt. Ordinem sane rei gestae videtur Marcus aliquantulum tenuisse, qui dicit Jesum cognita maligna adversum se dispositione Judaeorum, secessisse ad mare cum discipulis suis, et ad eum turbas confluxisse, et sanasse eum plurimos (Marc. III, 7-12). Unde autem coeperit in aliud ire, non quod ordine sequeretur, vix apparet: utrum ubi dicit convenisse ad eum turbas; potuit enim hoc jam et alio tempore: an ubi dicit, ascendit in montem. Quod et Lucas videtur commemorare dicens, Factum est autem in illis diebus, exiit in montem orare (Luc. VI, 12): dicendo enim, in illis diebus, satis ostendit non continuo factum.