Thursday, August 15, 2019

Matthew 24:34-25:46 and Evidence Matthew Wrote Independently of Mark


While not dogmatic about it, I am rather partial towards Matthew being the first gospel written, not Mark. There are some indications that Matthew wrote independent of Mark. Note the following discussion from John M. Rist in his monograph defending the thesis that Matthew and Mark having wrote independently of one another:

The End of the Parousia section (Mt 24:34-25:46)

Mark’s account of the Parousia ends at 13:37, but he departs from close parallelism with Matthew (and Luke) at 13:32. The last sentence where Mark and Matthew run in tandem is the striking ‘But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only’. The sentence looks like a culmination, and Mark merely follows it with an exhortation to be watchful.

Matthew also has a theme of watching, but develops it greatly with other material, much of which is found elsewhere in Luke, but in different contexts, but some of which – and above all the passage on the Last Judgment with which Matthew concludes chapter 25 – is found in Matthew alone. Clearly this material was floating in the tradition, and Matthew, following his usual pattern, fitted it in here, where he found it appropriate. So it might appear at first sight as though Matthew followed Mark as far as Mark went, and then added in his extra material. But in fact this is not what Matthew has done. For Matthew does not include M 13:33-7 in Mark’s place, but scatters versions of it through the remainder of his chapters 24 and 25 (c. Mt 24:42, 25:14-15, 25:13). In fact, it seems as though Matthew has versions of this particular ‘Markan’ material available, but from (and in) a source other than Mark. What has happened in chapters 24 and 25 is that Mark and the Matthew-source have overlapped, but there is no reason to suppose that the Matthew-source is Mark. In fact, since the ‘Markan’ sections are fitted excellently into non-Markan contexts, there is every reason to suppose that the Matthew-source is not Mark (Goulder [Midrash and Lection in Matthew, 166] plausibly conjectures the influence of Paul on Matthew’s eschatology). So it is clear that Matthew does not use Mk 13:33-7 as his source, and since this leads on well enough after Mark 13:30-2 parallels Matthew 24:34-6, Mark is not the source of Matthew at this point. (John M. Rist, On the Independence of Matthew and Mark [Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series 32; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978], 82, italics in original)