4 - The Order and Choice of the Material

Summary

Another point where the coherence criterion has been applied in the past, explicitly or implicitly, is the phenomenon of the ordering and the choice of the material in the later gospels. Although the two issues can be considered separately, they are sometimes treated simultaneously. For example, as was seen earlier, Griesbach himself believed that his hypothesis could explain the order of events in Mark's gospel on the basis of Mark's having followed the order of each of his sources in turn. However, Griesbach also believed that it was important to explain precisely why Mark left one source, and why he picked up the other, at just the points which the theory implied. Thus his argument, which sought in part to explain the Markan order, became also an explanation of Mark's choice of the material. Griesbach's argument then depends, at least in part, on the plausibility of the reasons he ascribes to Mark, and the extent to which they explain the facts. Weiss' arguments against Griesbach were essentially that they either did not fit the facts, or that they did not form a self-consistent set of explanations. On the other hand, appeals to coherence have been made by those arguing on the basis of both order and choice of material for Markan priority. Lachmann's own argument from order was based on this criterion, as were Woods' objections to the Griesbach hypothesis and Streeter's to the Augustinian hypothesis, both referring to the choice of material.