Chris Keith, in his discussion of purported inconsistencies between the Gospels of Mark and John, noted the following alongside the “standard fare” (e.g., different days for the crucifixion):
There are also less-obvious
examples that do not always get as much attention but are perhaps even more interesting.
For example, whereas the Markan narrator states that Jesus prayed that ‘the
hour (η ωρα) might pass from him’ (Mk 14.35), the Johannine Jesus scoffs at
even the idea of responding to ‘the hour’ in this manner: ‘Now my soul is
troubled. And what should I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour (της ωραν ταυτης)’? But for this I have come for
this hour (την ωραν ταυτην)’ (Jn 12.27). Likewise, whereas
Mark claims that Simon of Cyrene carried Jesus’ cross of him (Mk. 15.21), John
specifies that Jesus carried his cross himself (Jn 19.17).
To these we can add several more
possible disagreements with other Synoptic Gospels. In contrast to the Matthean
and Lukan infancy narratives, wherein Jesus is born of a virgin in Bethlehem
(Mt. 1.18-2.1; Lk. 1.26-2.40), the Johannine Jesus receives no narrated birth,
virgin or otherwise, and is never in Bethlehem (cf. Jn 7.42). IN the account of
the miraculous haul of fish, Luke 5.6 claims that there were so many fish that ‘their
nets were being torn (διερρησσετο
. . . τα δικτυα αυτων) whereas John 21.11 states that,
despite there being exactly 153 fish, ‘the net was not ripped’ (ουκ εσχισθη το δικτυον). (Chris Keith “’If John Knew
Mark’: Critical Inheritance and Johannine Disagreements with Mark,” in Eve-Marie
Becker, Helen K. Bond, and Catrin H. Williams, eds., John’s Transformation
of Mark [London: T&T Clark, 2021], 33)
