Proper 2 Year B

Proper 2

2 Kings 5.1–14
1 Corinthians 9.24–27
Mark 1.40–45

Mark’s Gospel is almost certainly the oldest of the four Gospels. Matthew and Luke seem to know it and depend upon it for some of their information, though they do also have independent sources of their own. It is possible that, rather than Matthew and Luke having read Mark, all three of these Gospels have an earlier, perhaps unwritten, source in common. Scholars usually call this hypothetical Gospel ‘Q’. The connections between the first three Gospels are fascinating, and it is always intriguing to read, for example, one of Jesus’s parables as relayed in three slightly different forms. Oceans of ink have been expended by New Testament experts on arguing about why Matthew puts a parable in a different context from Luke, or why Luke changes the audience from Mark’s version. This is what is called ‘the Synoptic Problem’, and any good commentary will give you some introduction to the main discussion. (John’s tradition, by the way, is strikingly different in a number of ways from the first three Gospels.)...


Taken from Lectionary Reflections – Year B by Jane Williams