Note 31 — Chapter V · THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS.

If then the Evangelists describe the vocation of two different men in a precisely similar way, it is improbable that there is accuracy on both sides, since an event could hardly be repeated in its minute particulars. One of the narratives, therefore, is in error; and the burthen has been thrown on the first Evangelist, because he places the calling of Matthew considerably after the Sermon on the Mount; while according to Luke (vi. 13 ff.), all the twelve had been chosen before that discourse was delivered.31 But this would only prove, at the most, that the first gospel gives a wrong position to the history; not that it narrates that history incorrectly. It is therefore unjust to impute special difficulties to the narrative of the first Evangelist: neither are such to be found in that of Mark and Luke, unless it be thought an inconsistency in the latter to attribute a forsaking of all, καταλιπὼν ἅπαντα, to one whom he does not include among the constant followers of Jesus.32 The only question is, do they not labour under a common difficulty, sufficient to stamp both accounts as unhistorical?