Mark: The Shortest or the Longest Gospel?

One of the reasons positing Mark as the earliest of the Synoptic Gospels seems so intuitive is that Mark’s Gospel is shorter than the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Mark’s Gospel consists of sixteen chapters with a total word count of approximately 11,304 Greek words. Matthew’s Gospel, by comparison, has twenty-eight chapters with an approximate total word count of 18,345 Greek words, and Luke’s Gospel has twenty-four chapters with an approximate total word count of 19,482. Simple math says Mark’s Gospel is the shortest Gospel by at least seven thousand words. But statistics can be deceptive when one’s approach is overly simplistic. While it is true that Mark’s Gospel contains fewer pericopae than the Gospels of Luke and Matthew, when we compare the pericopae Mark shares with Matthew and/or Luke Mark’s versions often turn out to be the longest.

Below is a table in which we tally the Greek word counts of the pericopae Mark shares with Matthew and Luke that we have completed for the LOY project so far. In the table below the longest version of each pericope is highlighted unless two are more versions are of equal length.

Word Count of Greek Text by Pericope
(Triple Tradition)

Pericope	Matthew	Mark	Luke
A Voice Crying	100	98	122
Yohanan the Immerser’s Eschatological Discourse	58	29	77
Yohanan the Immerser’s Execution	137	245	42
Yeshua’s Immersion	93	52	43
Yeshua’s Testing	183	30	202
Return to the Galil	24	35	31
Healings and Exorcisms	36	48	52
Bedridden Man	115	195	214
The Finger of God	123	72	117
Possessed Man in Girgashite Territory	146	325	292
Yeshua Attends to the Crowds	91	102	62
Heaven and Earth Pass Away	13	13	13
Yair’s Daughter and a Woman’s Faith	138	373	281
Shimon’s Mother-in-law	30	44	38
First and Last	8	9	13
Warning About Leavened Bread	109	107	27
Making a Show	34	44	47
Rich Man Declines the Kingdom of Heaven	269	276	198
Demands of Discipleship	23	26	22
Call of Levi	93	110	93
Four Soils parable	132	153	89
Four Soils interpretation	140	158	119
Yeshua, His Mother and Brothers	89	78	54
Mustard Seed parable	50	57	40
Choosing the Twelve	53	93	75
Sending the Twelve: Commissioning	27	18	26
Sending the Twelve: Conduct on the Road	74	29	21
Sending the Twelve: Conduct in Town	110	53	43
Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven	107	37	25
Quieting a Storm	84	118	94
Faith Like a Mustard Seed	34	38	34
Sign-Seeking Generation	40	46	42
Lesson of Lot’s Wife	24	28	34
Preserving and Destroying	21	24	22
Temple’s Destruction Foretold	72	76	45
Tumultuous Times	21	18	29
Abomination of Desolation / Yerushalayim Besieged	115	115	93
Son of Man’s Coming	92	71	52
Fig Tree Parable	36	37	54
Preparations for Eating the Passover Lamb	61	99	96
Completion 2	26	27	21
Completion 3	15	15	14
Be Ready for the Son of Man	11	87	57
Total Word Count:	3,257	3,708	3,165

The table above shows that in the TT pericopae covered in LOY thus far Mark’s versions frequently have the highest word count and Mark has the highest total word count overall.^[1] If having the lowest word count were a reliable indicator of originality, Mark’s Gospel would be counted as the least original.

Patterns for Lukan-Markan and Markan-Matthean pericopae are similar. Mark typically has a higher word count by pericope than the Lukan or Matthean parallel:

Word Count of Greek Text by Pericope
(Lk-Mk Pericopae)

Pericope	Matthew	Mark	Luke
Teaching in Kefar Nahum		124	119
Total Word Count:		124	119

Word Count of Greek Text by Pericope
(Mk-Mt Pericopae)

Pericope	Matthew	Mark	Luke
Jesus and a Canaanite Woman	139	129
Withered Fig Tree	53	77
Total Word Count:	192	206

Of course, pericope length by word count is not a reliable measure of originality. Each of the evangelists was capable of editing his source(s) by condensing as well as expanding, so it does not necessarily follow that the shortest version of a pericope is the most primitive or original.

Taking a closer look at Markan word counts, however, does dispel the notion that Mark’s is the shortest Gospel. Mark’s Gospel contains fewer pericopae, but many of the pericopae it includes are longer than their Lukan and/or Matthean parallels.

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• ^[1] Mark has 22 pericopae in the table above that are the longest versions. Luke has nine pericopae that are longest and Matthew also has nine that are longest. ↩