Editing Marcan priority (section)

===Content found only in Mark===

There are very few passages in Mark with no parallel in either Matthew or Luke, which makes them all the more significant:{{sfnp|Goodacre|2001|pp=59–61}}
* [[Parable of the Growing Seed|The parable of the growing seed]]<ref>{{bibleverse|Mk|4:26–29|!}}</ref>
* [[healing the deaf mute of Decapolis|The healing of the deaf mute of Decapolis]]<ref>{{bibleverse|Mk|7:31–37|!}}</ref>
* [[healing the blind man of Bethsaida|The healing of the blind man of Bethsaida]]<ref>{{bibleverse|Mk|8:22–26|!}}</ref>
* [[naked fugitive|The naked fugitive]]<ref>{{bibleverse|Mk|14:51–52|!}}</ref>

If Mark is drawn from Matthew and Luke, it is hard to see why so little material would be added, if anything were going to added at all, and the choice of additions is also rather strange. On the other hand, if Mark was written first, it is easier to see why Matthew and Luke would omit these passages. These two healings are the only ones in the Synoptics involving the use of saliva (but cf. the [[healing of the man born blind]] in {{bibleverse|John|9}}), and the naked runaway is an obscure incident with no obvious meaning or purpose.{{sfnp|Goodacre|2001|pp=59–61}}{{efn|Mark 14:52 may be an allusion to Amos 2:16 "And he who is stout of heart among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day,' says the {{LORD}}."}}

This does not tell the whole story, for altogether Mark has (depending on the method of counting) about 155 verses included in neither Matthew nor Luke—nearly a quarter of the entire Gospel of Mark.{{sfnp|Powers|2010|pp=102–111}} Most of these are details omitted in the parallel passages, rather than distinct [[pericopes]]. In fact, apart from sayings material, nearly every pericope in Mark is longer than its parallels in Matthew and Luke.{{sfnp|Powers|2010|pp=135–138}} An illustrative example is the [[calming the storm|calming of the storm]]:<ref>For color-coded synopsis in Greek and English, see {{cite web | url=http://www.textexcavation.com/syncalmingsea.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090827073000/http://www.textexcavation.com/syncalmingsea.html | url-status=usurped | archive-date=August 27, 2009 | title=The calming of the sea (or lake) | work=TextExcavation | access-date=2013-12-29 | year=2009 | last=Smith | first=Ben C. }}</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto;"
|- valign="top"
! {{bibleref2|Mt|8:23–25|NET}} !! {{bibleref2|Lk|8:22–24|NET}} !! {{bibleref2|Mk|4:35–38|NET}}
|- valign="top"
| As he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And a great storm developed on the sea so that the waves began to swamp the boat. But he was asleep. So they came and woke him up saying, "Lord, save us! We are about to die!"
| One day Jesus got into a boat with his disciples and said to them, "Let's go across to the other side of the lake." So they set out, and as they sailed he fell asleep. Now a violent windstorm came down on the lake, and the boat started filling up with water, and they were in danger. They came and woke him, saying, "Master, Master, we are about to die!"
| On that day, '''{{em|when evening came,}}''' Jesus said to his disciples, "Let's go across to the other side." '''{{em|So after leaving the crowd, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat, and other boats were with him.}}''' Now a great windstorm developed and the waves '''{{em|were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was nearly swamped}}'''. But he was '''{{em|in the stern,}}''' sleeping '''{{em|on a cushion}}'''. They woke him up and said to him, "'''{{em|Teacher, don't you care that}}''' we are about to die?"
|}

Mark's unique details tend to be, by necessity, non-essential ones. Marcan priority sees Matthew and Luke trimming away trivial narrative details in favor of the extensive material they wished to add elsewhere. But under Marcan posteriority, these details must have been added to Mark to make the stories more vivid and clear. In either case, Mark must have had an independent source (traditionally, Peter) spanning nearly the entire Gospel; but if so, Marcan posteriority requires a complex and skillful weaving together of this source with both Matthew and Luke, even within individual sentences, which would have been a challenging task.{{sfnp|Tuckett|2008|pp=20–21}}