ircumstances under which the
Evangelical narrative in question was composed. There were two phenomena
in it which seemed to him to call for explanation. In the first place,
it is not a _complete_ narrative. In the second place, the events are
not recorded in _strict chronological order_. These two phenomena are
explained by St Mark's position and opportunities, which were
necessarily limited. His work was composed from reminiscences of St
Peter's preaching; and, as this preaching was necessarily fragmentary
and adapted to the immediate requirements of his hearers (the preacher
having no intention of giving a continuous narrative), the writer could
not possess either the materials for a complete account or the knowledge
for an accurate chronological arrangement. Papias obviously has before
him some other Gospel narrative or narratives, which contained sayings
or doings of Christ not recorded by St Mark, and moreover related those
which he did record in a different order. For this discrepancy he
desires to account. The motive and the treatment have an exact parallel,
as I shall show hereafter, in the account of the Gospels given by the
author of the Muratorian Canon.

This is the plain and simple inference from the passage; and we have
only to ask whether this description corresponds with the phenomena of
our St Mark. That it does so correspond, I think, can hardly be denied.
As regards _completeness_, it is sufficient to call attention to the
fact that any one of our Canonical Gospels records many doings, and
above all, many sayings, which are omitted in St Mark. As regards
_order_ again, it may, I believe, safely be said that no writer of a
'Life of Christ' finds himself able to preserve the sequence of events
exactly as it stands in St Mark. His account does not profess to be
strictly chronological. There are indeed chronological links in the
narrative here and there; but throughout considerable parts of our
Lord's ministry the successive incidents are quite unconnected by
notices of time. In short, the Gospel is just what we should expect, if
the author had derived his information in the way reported by the
Presbyter. But our author objects, that it 'does not depart in any
important degree from the order of the other two Synoptics,' and that it
'throughout has the most evident character of orderly arrangement'
[165:1]. Persons may differ as to what is important or unimportant; but
if the reader will refer to any one o