y quotations
made by St. Mark {56} himself are in i. 2, 3 (Mal. iii. 1; Isa. xl. 3)
and xv. 28 (Isa. liii. 12). On the other hand, we find eighteen
miracles, only two less than in the much longer Gospel of St. Matthew.
The theological tone of Mark may be described as neutral. There is no
trace of the innocent preferences which Matt. and Luke show toward this
or that aspect of the teaching of Jesus. In Mark we do not find so
strong an approval of the more permanent parts of the Jewish Law, or so
strong a denunciation of the Pharisees who exalted the external
adjuncts of the Law, as we find in Matt. Nor do we find such parables
as the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son, by which Luke lays emphasis
upon the truth that the Jews have no monopoly of holiness, and that the
outcast is welcome to the gospel. Mark is less Jewish than Matt., less
Gentile and Pauline than Luke. It used to be said that this was the
result of "trimming," and intended to bridge over the differences
between two different schools of theology. But the charge has broken
down. St. Mark, though not anti-Jewish, regards Christ as above the
law of the sabbath (ii. 28), and teaches the necessity of new external
religious forms (ii. 22). Though he is not Jewish, and though he omits
the statement made in Matt. xv. 24, a statement indicating that the
Jews had the first right to be taught by the Messiah, he does record,
like Matt., the still harder statement of the same fact made to the
Syro-Phoenician woman (vii. 27). The truth is that St. Mark is neutral
simply in the sense that he faithfully records a story which was
moulded before doctrinal conflicts had taken place between Christian
believers. The doctrine of St. Mark is archaic.

One of the most distinctive features of this Gospel is the decisive
clearness with which it shows how Jesus trained and educated His
disciples. The simplicity with which St. Mark describes the faults of
the friends of our Lord is as remarkable as the vigour with which the
gestures and feelings of our Lord are portrayed. St. Mark relates how
that early in the ministry of Jesus, His friends (iii. 21) said that He
was mad, and that "His {57} mother and His brethren" (iii. 31) sought
to bring Him back. The discipline and education of the disciples are
recorded with a plain revelation of their mistakes and their spiritual
dulness. When they had settled in Capernaum Christ shows them that He
must find a wider sphere of wor