Doublets in the synoptic tradition.Pericopes repeated within the same gospel.A doublet, for my purposes, is a pericope or an extensive part of a pericope in a synoptic gospel which is repeated, at least in substance, at another point in that same gospel. Such doubled pericopes are frequently shared at least once in another gospel, as well. Any repeated textual unit not long enough to qualify for its own pericope in my synoptic inventories I class not as a doublet but as a formula. But the dividing line between a doublet and repeated formula is for the most part arbitrary. In order, therefore, to best grasp the nature of this part of the synoptic problem, I recommend reading the present compilation in conjunction with that of the formulae. The named pericopes in what follows correspond to the units in my synoptic inventories. The accompanying list of parallel passages, however, will correspond, not necessarily with the pericope as a whole, but rather with the more precise parallels within that pericope. I am greatly indebted to Sir J. C. Hawkins, Horae Synopticae, pages 80-107. In parentheses I have included the number that Hawkins assigned to each doublet; these numbers may not always be in order, since Hawkins divided his doublets into discourse and narrative varieties, while I am just plowing through them all in order of first mention within each gospel. Doublets in Matthew.Matthew appears to contain more doublets than either of the other two synoptics:
Doublets 4, 10-15, and 19-22 I have reclassified as formulae. Doublets in Mark.Hawkins lists only one doublet for Mark, namely 9.35 and 10.43-44 (identical with his Matthean doublet number 13), which I have classed with my formulae. He briefly considers Mark 9.23 with 11.23, and Mark 13.5-6 with 13.21-23, but decides that they do not closely enough resemble each other. His appendix to all three lists (Matthean, Marcan, and Lucan) is the saying about having ears to hear, which finds its way into Matthew thrice (11.15; 13.9, 43), Mark twice (4.9, 23; refer also to the textually questionable 7.16), and Luke also twice (8.8; 14.35). We are left with only one item for Mark, one which is actually not a doublet but a triplet:
Hawkins dismisses these predictions, present in all three gospels, from his official list on the grounds that they are so distinctly assigned to separate occasions. In this he seems a little inconsistent, as the argument could be made for several of his doublets that they are assigned to separate occasions. Of course, as they appear in parallel in all three synoptic gospels, they would not belong to Mark in particular, so I have included them under Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Doublets in Luke.With Luke we venture back into a real list:
Doublets 1-3, 8-9, and 11 I have reclassified as formulae. |