medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
For an informed and intelligent discussion of the problems, see Stephen
Carlson's attempt to understand Clement of Alexandria's unusual claim that in
some sense Matthew and Luke come before Mark and John:
http://www.mindspring.com/~scarlson/greek/clement.htm
His footnotes 6 and 7 summarize other evidence, including that "Bruce M. Metzger
noted that the Matthew, Mark, Luke, John order was "made popular by Eusebius and
Jerome," but that as many as eight other orders have been attested among the
manuscripts. Metzger 1987: 296."
Remember that in the earliest period, these materials probably circulated as
separate scrolls and then as "mini-codices" containing only one or two gospels,
although T.C.Skeat tries to argue that Christian appropriation of the codex
format was influenced by the desire to fix the number of gospels at four! Thus
the question of "order" can be viewed as a matter of supposed chronology (so
apparently Origen), or in terms of how the materials were grouped in codices
(Metzger's comment), or perhaps by some other criteria (e.g. influence of the
respective user communities). But surviving Greek (and Latin?) manuscripts of
the Gospels tend to give the order that has become traditional.
Papias (early to mid 2nd century) speaks about the "logia" collected by
"Matthew" in "Hebrew" -- which "everyone translated as they wished" -- and thus
has little to contribute to this discussion of ordering, beyond giving some sort
of vague antiquity to some activity of "Matthew."
It's all very complex, as even the author of Luke reveals in referring to
predecessors (Luke 1.1-4). But I don't think there is any ancient evidence for
placing Mark first in any grouping -- which is (to me, at least) understandable
given the way the traditions -- and the technologies -- seem to have evolved.
Bob Kraft
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> Does anyone know how (and when) the "Matthew, Mark, Luke and John" Gospel
> "order" came into being in light of the fact that Mark is the oldest?
> Thanks, MG
>
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--
Robert A. Kraft, Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania
227 Logan Hall (Philadelphia PA 19104-6304); tel. 215 898-5827
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http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/rak/kraft.html
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