Mark 6:45, The Great Omission

Posted on Monday, October 3, 2011 in Bible Commentary | 0 comments

And straightway he constrained his disciples to get into the ship, and to go to the other side before unto Bethsaida, while he sent away the people.

//A while back, I reviewed a book titled “Q.” This gospel  is considered to be the other half of the two-source theory. The idea is this: Most of the book of Mark is repeated in both Matthew and Luke, making one think that those two Gospel writers wrote with Mark in hand. But Matthew and Luke also share a number of other common themes, enough for scholars to hypothesize the early existence of another document, a sayings Gospel, which they’ve unimaginatively titled “Q,” meaning quelle, or source.

The two-source theory has become the most commonly accepted explanation among scholars of how the Synoptic Gospels were derived. But there is potentially a big problem with it. Today’s verse begins a long passage in Mark, covering nearly two chapters from 6:45-8:26, that do not seem to be represented in Luke. If Luke used Mark as a source, why did he omit this section?

The Great Omission included Jesus walking on water, his healing at Gennesaret, the healing of a deaf and dumb man, the feeding of the four thousand, the Syrophoenician woman, and the healing of a blind man at Bethsaida, among other pericopes.