ficant instance where
Matt. and Luke agree against Mark in the order of _part_ of an
incident. In Matt. iii. 11, 12 and Luke iii. 16, "I indeed baptize you
with water," etc., comes _before_, in Mark i. 7, 8 it comes _after_,
the description of Jesus as "He that is mightier than I." No doubt one
author who copies another may often omit something stated by the first
author. But, surely, he is not very likely to invert the order of the
materials before him, especially when no obvious purpose can be served
by such an inversion. Another instance of inversion is this: in Mark
ix. 12, 13 the rejection of the Son of Man is mentioned by our Lord
_between_ two statements of His about Ehas, in Matt. xvii. 12 it is
mentioned _after_ both statements. Such inversions would naturally
take place in the case of oral transmission of the sacred story, but
they would be less likely in the case of one writer copying another.

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(d) _Verbal differences._--Striking verbal differences occur even when
the general resemblance is most close. In Matt. ix. 1-17, Mark ii.
1-22, Luke v. 17-39, there are verbal changes even where the sentences
closely coincide. Other instances might be quoted. All three
evangelists have a style of their own, and show a marked preference for
particular idioms and words. In narrating the sayings of our Lord,
they narrate them with some verbal differences, and in the case of the
history of His ministry, they narrate it with numerous verbal
differences. It is therefore evident that St. Matthew and St. Luke, if
they used St. Mark's work, felt themselves at liberty to deal with it
very freely.

The above brief account of the chief resemblances and differences
between the first three Gospels is an attempt to give a fair though
condensed statement of certain facts which appeal with different force
to different minds. "How came these Gospels to be so alike and yet so
different?" This is the "Synoptic problem," and great divergence of
opinion exists as to the solution.

[Sidenote: Possible solutions.]

The most important views propounded to solve the problem are--

(1) Both St. Matthew and St. Luke copied the Gospel of St. Mark, while
not omitting to make use of other documents. In the case of St. Luke,
his acquaintance with earlier written stories about our Lord is
rendered indisputable by his own statement. Sometimes it has been
thought that St. Luke made use of the Gospel according to St. Matthew
as