Chapter XLI.—Of the Words Which Were Spoken Out of the Ship on the Subject of
the Sower, Whose Seed, as He Sowed It, Fell Partly on the Wayside, Etc.; And Concerning
the Man Who Had Tares Sowed Over and Above His Wheat; And Concerning the Grain
of Mustard Seed and the Leaven; As Also of What He Said in the House Regarding the
Treasure Hid in the Field, and the Pearl, and the Net Cast into the Sea, and the Man that
Brings Out of His Treasure Things New and Old; And of the Method in Which Matthew’s
Harmony with Mark and Luke is Proved Both with Respect to the Things Which They Have
Reported in Common with Him, and in the Matter of the Order of Narration.
88. Matthew continues thus: “In that day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the
seaside: and great multitudes were gathered together unto Him, so that He went into a ship
and sat, and the whole multitude stood on the shore. And He spake many things unto them
in parables, saying;” and so on, down to the words, “Therefore every scribe which is instructed
in the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth
out of his treasure things new and old.”1025 That the things narrated in this passage took
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place immediately after the incident touching the mother and the brethren of the Lord, and
that Matthew has also retained that historical order in his version of these events, is indicated
by the circumstance that, in passing from the one subject to the other, he has expressed the
connection by this mode of speech: “In that day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the
sea-side; and great multitudes were gathered together unto Him.” For by adopting this
phrase, “in that day” (unless perchance the word “day,” in accordance with a use and wont
of the Scriptures, may signify simply “time”), he intimates clearly enough either that the
thing now related took place in immediate succession on what precedes, or that much at
least could not have intervened. This inference is confirmed by the fact that Mark keeps by
the same order.1026 Luke, on the other hand, after his account of what happened with the
mother and the brethren of the Lord, passes to a different subject. But at the same time, in
making that transition, he does not institute any such connection as bears the appearance
of a want of consistency with this order.1027 Consequently, in all those passages in which
Mark and Luke have reported in common with Matthew the words which were spoken by
the Lord, there is no questioning their harmony with one another. Moreover, the sections
which are given by Matthew only are even much more beyond the range of controversy.
And in the matter of the order of narration, although it is presented somewhat differently
by the various evangelists, according as they have proceeded severally along the line of his-
1025 Matt. xiii. 1–52.
1026 Mark iv. 1–34.
1027 Luke viii. 22.
Of the Words Which Were Spoken Out of the Ship on the Subject of the Sower, Whose Seed, as He Sowed It, Fell Partly on the Wayside, Etc.; And Concerning the Man Who Had Tares Sowed Over and Above His Wheat; And Concerning the Grain of Mustard Seed and the Leaven; As Also of What He Said in the House Regarding the Treasure Hid in the Field, and the Pearl, and the Net Cast into the Sea, and the Man that Brings Out of His Treasure Things New and Old; And of the Method in Which Matthew’s Harmony with Mark and Luke is Proved Both with Respect to the Things Which They Have Reported in Common with Him, and in the Matter of the Order of Narration.
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Of the Words Which Were Spoken Out of the Ship on the Subject of the Sower,…