According to Norton (Genuineness of Gospels) there are not more than twenty-four verses in Mark to which parallels, more or less exact, do not exist in the other Synoptists. The same painstaking investigator informs us, that while the general coin cidences between St. Mark and one of the other two amount to thirteen-fourteenths of the whole gospel, the verbal coincidences are one-sixth, and of these four-fifths in St. Mark occur in the recital of the words of our Lord and others ; and only one fifth in the narrative portion, which, roughly speak ing, forms one-half of his gospel.
Additions peculiar to St. Mark are, the Sab bath made for man' (ii. 27) ; our Lord's friends seeking to lay hold on Him (iii. 21) ; many par ticulars in the miracles of the Gadarene demoniac (v. 1-2o) ; Jairus's daughter, and the woman with issue of blood (v. 22-43) ; the stilling of the tem pest (iv. 35-41), and the lunatic child (ix. 14-29) ; the salting with fire (ix. 49) ; that the common people heard Him gladly' (xii. 37) ; the command to watch (xiii. 33-37) ; the young man with the linen cloth about his body (xiv. 51) ; the want of agree ment between the testimony of the false witnesses (xiv. 59) ; Pilate's investigation of the reality of Christ's death (xv. 44), and the difficulty felt by the women as to the rolling away the stone (xvi. 3, 4). St. Mark has also preserved several words and phrases, and entire sayings of our Lord, which merit close attention (i. 15 ; iv. 13 ; vi. 31, 34 ; vii. 8 ; viii. 38 ; ix. 12, 39 ; x. 21, 24, 30; xi. xiii. 32 ; xiv. 18-37 ; xvi. 7, [15-18].
4. the gospel now under review, our Lord is presented to us, not as in St. Matthew, as the Messiah, the Son of David and Abraham, the theocratic King of the chosen people ; nor, as in St. Luke, as the universal Saviour of our fallen humanity ; but as the incarnate and wonder-working Son of God, for whose emblem the early church justly selected the lion of the tribe of Judah.' His record is emphatically the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God' (Mark i. t), living and working among men, and de veloping His mission more in acts than by words. The limits of his narrative and its gene ral character can hardly be better stated than in the words of his great teacher, Acts x. 36-42.
Commencing with the Baptist preaching in the wilderness, and announcing the Mightier One' who was at hand, he tells us how, at His baptism, God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power,' and declared Him to be His ' Beloved Son :' gathering up the temptation into the pregnant fact, He was with the wild beasts ;' thus setting the Son of God before us as the Lord of nature, in whom the original grant to man of dominion over the lower creation was fulfilled (Maurice, Unity of N. T., p, 226; Bengel, in loc. ;
Wilberforce, Doctrine of Incarnation, pp. 89, 90). As we advance, we find him detailing every exer cise of our Lord's power over man and nature distinctly and minutely—not merely chronicling the incidents, as is St. Matthew's way, but sur rounding them with all the circumstances that made them impressive to the bystanders, and making us feel how deep that impression was ; how great the awe and wonder with which His mighty works and preaching were regarded, not only by the crowd (i. 22, 27; ii. 12; vi. 2), but by the disciples themselves (iv. 41 ; vi. 51 ; x. 24, z6, 32) ; how the crowds thronged and pressed upon Him (iii. to ; v. 21, 31 ; vi. 33 ; viii. 1), so that there was scarce room to stand or sit (ii. 2 ; iii. 32; iv. I), or leisure even to eat (iii. 20 ; vi. 31) ; how His fame spread the more He sought to conceal it (i. 45 ; iii. 7 ; v. 20 ; vii. 36, 37) ; and how, in con sequence, the people crowded about Him, bringing their sick (i. 32-34; iii. ro) ; and whithersoever He entered into villages, or cities, or country, they laid the sick in streets, and besought that they might touch, if it were but the border of His gar ment, and as many as touched were made perfectly whole' (vi. 56) ; how the unclean spirits, seeing Him, at once fell down before Him and acknow ledged His power, crying, Thou art the Son of God' (i. 23-26 ; iii. how, again, in St. Peter's words, He went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with Him.' But while the element of divine power is that which specially arrests our attention in reading his gospel, there is none in which the human per sonality is more conspicuous. The single word 6 TIKTCJV (vi. 3) throws a flood of life on our Lord's early life as man in His native village. The limita tion of His knowledge is expressly stated (xiii. 32, oiV 6 Ti6s); and we continually meet with mention of human emotions—anger (iii. 5 • viii. 12, 33 ; x. 14), wonder (vi. 6), pity (vi. 34), love (x. 21), grief (vii. 34; viii. 12) ; and human infirmities—sleep (iv. 38), desire for repose (vi. 3,), hunger (xi. 12).