Chapter LXIV.-Of the Occasions on Which He Foretold His
Passion in Private to His Disciples; And of the Time When the Mother of
Zebedee's Children Came with Her Sons, Requesting that One of Them Should
Sit on His Right Hand, and the Other on His Left Hand; And of the Absence
of Any Discrepancy Between Matthew and the Other Two Evangelists on These
Subjects.
124. Matthew continues his narrative in the following terms: "And Jesus,
going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples apart, and said unto them,
Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto
the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death,
and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify
Him; and the third day He shall rise again. Then came to Him the mother
of Zebedee's children with her sons, worshipping Him, and desiring a certain
thing of Him;" and so on, down to the words, "Even as the Son of man came
not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom
for many."463 Here again Mark keeps the same order as Matthew,
only he represents the sons of Zebedee to have made the request themselves;
while Matthew has stated that it was preferred on their behalf not by their
own personal application, but by their mother, as she had laid what was
their wish before the Lord. Hence Mark has briefly intimated what was said
on that occasion as spoken by them, rather than by her [in their name].
And to conclude with the matter, it is to them rather than to her, according
to Matthew no less than according to Mark, that the Lord returned His reply.
Luke, on the other hand, after narrating in the same order our Lord's predictions
to the twelve disciples on the subject of His passion and resurrection,
leaves unnoticed what the other two evangelists immediately go on to record;
and after the interposition of these passages, he is joined by his fellow-writers
again [at the point where they report the incident] at Jericho.464
Moreover, as to what Matthew and Mark have stated with respect to
the princes of the Gentiles exercising dominion over those who are subject
to them,-namely, that it should not be so with them [the disciples], but
that he who was greatest among them should even be a servant to the others,-Luke
also gives us something of the same tenor, although not in that connection;465
and the order itself indicates that the same sentiment was expressed by
the Lord on a second occasion.
463 Matt. xx. 17-28.
464 Luke xviii. 31-35.
465 Luke xxii. 24-27.
