Interesting!
Where you see G-Mark as stripped down (afterwards), I see Matthew as heavily embellished (afterwards).
Where you see G-Mark as a buttress for Paul, I see it as quite the opposite. I don't think that Paul knew about or cared about Yeshua's life..... at all.
Paul's mentions of Yeshua's life and mission could be written large on half of an envelope or less. Indeed, I see Paul (and probably others) as the initiators of the Christ faith....... because Yeshua, as reported in G-Mark..... certainly did not.
G-Mark shows a tekton/nagarra turned to healer who was attracted to JtB's mission, joined it, and picked it up after John's arrest...... finding much interest (from the crowds) in his healing and speeches but failing to win enough supporters. etc etc.... An 11-12 month mission up until Passover the following year.
What d'ya reckon?
Forgive the long post, but I believe this article makes the best argument for my position:
Pro-Paul Bias Explains Mark Edited Matthew
So is it demonstrable that Mark had a pro-Paul bias as Bauer claimed?
John Mark was a companion of Paul referenced in Colossians 4:10, Philemon 24 and 2 Tim. 4:11. The Coptic church—the most ancient Christian Church of Egypt—maintains this same John Mark was the author of Mark’s Gospel. See “
Mark the Evangelist,” Wikipedia (2011).
But was Mark instead close to Peter and written under Peter’s influence, as is commonly asserted? Not if you listen to the earliest source on the origin of Mark’s Gospel: Clement. Eusebius quoted Clement, an early leader at Rome about 92 AD, who said Peter was unaware Mark had written a gospel until it was completed, “and that when the matter came to Peter’s knowledge, he neither strongly forbad it nor urged it forward.” Eusebius
Ecclesiastical History 6.14.6-10, cited in Powell, Robbing Peter to Pay Paul, supra, at 71.
The notion that Peter gave Mark his Gospel originated almost 100 years later and much farther from Rome where Mark wrote. It came from Egypt’s Origen (ca. 185 AD). But that means that it “appears the farther from Peter’s lifetime we get, the closer Mark is to him [i.e., Peter].” Powell, Robbing Peter to Pay Paul, supra, at 71.
Conversely, when we move closer to Peter’s lifetime, there is absolutely no link between Mark’s Gospel and Peter.
Hence, as a matter of history, there is more reason to support a Pauline connection than a Petrine connection to the origin of Mark’s Gospel. And this will help us identify the likely reason that Mark omitted the Sermon on the Mount.
Why does a connection between Mark and Paul best explain the absence of the Sermon on the Mount rather than that Mark was written before Matthew, and thus Matthew added the Sermon for his own reasons?
As explained by scholar David C. Sim from the Department of New Testament Studies University of Pretoriain in his article “Matthew’s anti-Paulinism: A neglected feature of Matthean studies,”HTS 58(2) 2002 at 776-777 [
PDF link]:
H D Betz...argued that the Sermon on the Mount...reflected a conservative Jewish Christian perspective that was overtly anti-Pauline (cf Mt 5:17-20; 7:13-27.)
How so? The Sermon on the Mount emphasized the Law and obedience for kingdom entry. For Matthew 5:20 said “your righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees” who Jesus in Matthew depicts as anti-legalists / shallow adherents to the Law. See Matt 15:6, 23:23. See also “Matthew 23:23: Pharisees As Anti-Legalists” on page 178 infra.
To confirm this, do we find a consistent bias in Mark which similarly explains why other passages in Matthew do not appear?
Indeed, there are numerous examples that Mark removes verses which have an anti-Paul flavor but which permeate Matthew’s Gospel, whether GATHM or the Greek version, including the Sermon on the Mount (viz., Matt 5:19).
For example, in Mark, gone is the reference in Matthew 5:17-19 that the greatest in the kingdom of the heavens teaches the Law, but the one loosening the Law will be known as the LEAST—the meaning of Paul’s Latin name of Paulus, a contraction of Pauxillus which means the LEAST. (See “Matthew 5:19: A Reference To Paul?” on page 158 infra.) In fact, the word Law never appears in Mark!
In Mark, gone is the reference to the false prophets as “ravening wolves” in “sheep’s clothing” as we find in Matthew 7:15—an obvious allusion to the “Benjamite Ravening Wolf” prophecy of Genesis 49:27 which was hardly complimentary of Paul. (See “Matthew 7:15: The Benjamite Wolf Prophecy” on page 160 infra.)
Gone also in Mark’s account of the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares (Mark 4:26-29 cfr. Matthew 13:24-29; 36-40) is that the Tares are first taken from the earth when Christ returns, not Christians. Thus, Mark removes the fact that Matthew’s account of the same parable is at odds with Paul in 1 Thess. 4:17. There Paul says instead that Christians are raptured first, leaving the evil behind. Mark’s Gospel tells the same parable by Jesus but without the fact the evil are raptured, not Christians, when Christ returns. Mark similarly omits Matthew 24:31 which repeats that the evil are first raptured out of the earth, leaving the righteous to inherit the earth (which matches Revelation ch. 14 as well). See Matthew 24:31.
Also disappearing from the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares is the allusion to an “enemy” sowing tares among wheat. As several commentators point out, the Parable of the Tares in Matthew was apparently intended as direction to orthodox Christians to tolerate Paul’s followers in the church as sown by an “enemy.” Even though this message was kind and tolerant, Mark, with a pro-Paul bias, evidently would not want it to appear Jesus was giving any prophetic attention to the problem of Paul. Especially if Jesus depicted Paul as an enemy. This would explain again why Mark dropped “enemy” out of the parable. See Matthew 13:25, 39
Gone also in Mark’s account is Peter’s confession of Jesus as “Messiah, Son of God.” (Matt 16:17.) As a result, gone is that Jesus says Heaven revealed this to Peter, implying Peter received this directly from the Father. Cfr. Mark 8:29. And Matthew adds that Jesus says that upon this rock (Peter’s faith? or Peter whose name means rock?), Jesus will found His church.
David C Sim in his article, “Matthew’s anti-Paulinism: A neglected feature of Matthean studies,” HTS 58(2) (2002) [
PDF link] explains the anti-Pauline feature to this passage of Matthew:
“[T]he words of Jesus in Mt 16:17 bear a striking similarity to Paul’s words of his own revelation and commission by the risen Christ in Gl 1:12 and 16-17. Matthew [sic: Jesus] is making the point that it was Peter and not Paul who experienced divine revelations and who was commissioned by Jesus to lead the church.” See also, Sim, The Gospel of Matthew and Christian Judaism: The history and social setting of the Matthean community (Edinburgh: T& T Clark, 1998) at 200-203.
Why would Mark leave out something that elevates Peter? Because a defender of Paul would wish to take such recognition from Peter, as Paul attacked Peter in Galatians as a hypocrite (Gal. 2:11-12), dismissing him as a “seeming” pillar of the church (Gal. 2:9) who “imparted nothing to me” (Gal 2:7) and “whatsoever they [i.e., Peter, James and John] were makes no difference to me,” i.e., Paul is unimpressed by their stature with Jesus. Gal 2:6. Mark’s Gospel by deleting these passages supportive of Peter in Matthew would present a gospel easier for Paul’s followers to read.
Gone in Mark is also Jesus’ statement to call no man ‘father’ in Matt 23:9, when Paul told the Corinthians he was their “spiritual father” in Christ. See “Matthew 23:9: Don’t Call Anyone Father” on page 177 infra.
Also gone in Mark is Matthew 23:21 where Jesus says not to swear by the Temple where “God resides” when Paul teaches at Athens that God “does not live in temples built by human hands.” (Acts 17:24.)
Gone in Mark is also Jesus’ depiction of the Pharisees as anti-legalists in Matthew 23:23 whom Jesus faults for obeying the smaller parts of the Law but not teaching the greater parts of the Law, i.e., justice, piety and mercy. But Paul had the contrary view the Pharisees were strict legalists. He states this in Philippians 3:5-6 and Acts 26:5. See “Matthew 23:23: Pharisees As Anti-Legalists” on page 178 et seq.
In addition, gone in Mark is the reference that Jesus says the Pharisees were excellent at performing the outward acts necessary to appear in compliance with the Law, but inwardly were deceitful and corrupt. (Matt 23:28.) Jesus in Matthew similarly says the Pharisees were white-washed tombs on the outside to make others believe they were law-abiding. They cleaned the outside of the cup when their external behavior was solely to appear Law-compliant—an expedient to gain honors and money; it was not to truly obey God. (Matt 23:25, 27.) But Paul openly endorsed and practiced exactly the same outward-Law-conformance practices, acknowledging inwardly he was not subject to the Law but obeyed the Law solely for expedience-sake to gain adherents among Jews. (1 Cor 9:20-21 (“to the Jews I became as a Jew that I might win Jews...myself not being myself under the Law....”) Paul even extolled hypocrisy for the sake of gaining followers: “But be it so, I did not myself burden you; but, being crafty, I caught you with guile.” (2 Cor. 12:16, ASV.) Mark deleted all condemnations by Jesus of the Pharisees’ tactic of hypocritical obedience to the Law to gain adherents. Any follower of Paul aware of such passages must cringe when reading Matthew. But such problem is absent with Mark.
There is no doubt about Paul’s principles that are implicated by our Lord’s words. For example, Paul taught that he was free to violate the Exodus command not to eat meat sacrificed to idols, but Paul said that only if he were around someone who thought it was wrong, Paul would refrain from eating such meat. (1 Cor 8:11.) Paul’s moral explanation for such behavior appears to be what Jesus condemned—obedience solely for expediency but otherwise Paul thought he did not have to obey any inward duties imposed by the Law. Paul wrote: “All things are lawful but not all things are necessarily expedient.” (1 Cor 6:12.) Paul also explained that on eating such foods, the rule was not to offend by insisting upon any principles so as to gain adherents: “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do...[g]ive no offense, either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God,
just as I also please all men in all things,..seeking...the profit of many, that they may be saved.” (1Corinthians 10:31-33.)
So in Mark’s Gospel, we find Jesus’s words are erased which condemn similar hypocrisy of the Pharisees whom Jesus said obeyed the Law for appearance-sake and expediency to gain followers. Thus, Mark’s gospel served to cleanse such embarrassing commands from our Savior—thereby becoming an important text to use if one were to have a gospel acceptable to Paul’s followers.
Likewise, gone in Mark is the command “do not take wages” (OGM) and “freely you received, freely give” (ASV) which we find in Matthew 10:8. These Matthean lessons were similarly at odds with Paul who tells the Corinthians: “I
robbed other churches, taking wages of them that I might minister unto you.” 2 Cor 11:8 (ASV.) Paul also defended preachers taking wages of the churches in 1 Tim. 5:17, where Paul wrote: “The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor [
i.e., payment] especially those whose work is preaching and teaching.” Paul defends this by using a verse about not muzzling an ox, applying that agricultural rule to imply churchgoers have a duty to pay the elders for their service. (1 Tim. 5:18.) Hence, Jesus’ blunt lesson not to take wages for preaching was evidently removed by Mark as Mark apparently did with so many other passages where Jesus’ words otherwise trouble a follower of Paul.
Marcan Priority Claim Is Invalid