Note 42 — Chapter V · THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS.

After the Pharisees, Matthew makes the disciples of John approach Jesus with the question, why his disciples did not fast, as they did (v. 14 f.); in Luke (v. 33 ff.) it is still the Pharisees who vaunt their own fasts and those of John’s disciples, as contrasted with the eating and drinking of the disciples of Jesus; Mark’s account is not clear (v. 18). According to Schleiermacher, every unprejudiced person must perceive in the statement of Matthew compared with that of Luke, the confusing emendations of a second editor, who could not explain to himself how the Pharisees came to appeal to the disciples of John; whereas, thinks Schleiermacher, the question would have been puerile in the mouth of the latter; but it is easy to imagine that the Pharisees might avail themselves of an external resemblance to the disciples of John when opposing Jesus, who had himself received baptism of that teacher. It is certainly surprising that after the Pharisees, who were offended because Jesus ate with publicans, some disciples of John should step forth as if they had been cited for the purpose, to censure generally the unrestricted eating and drinking of Jesus and his disciples. The probable explanation is, that evangelical tradition associated the two circumstances from their intrinsic similarity, and that the first Evangelist erroneously gave them the additional connexion of time and place. But the manner in which the third Evangelist fuses the two particulars, appears a yet more artificial combination, and is certainly not historical, because the reply of Jesus could only be directed to John’s disciples, or to friendly inquirers: to Pharisees, he would have given another and a more severe answer.42