While Mark thus receives such alternating support from one or other of his fellow Evangelists, I am not aware of any clear case in which, as to the order of the narratives, they are, united and he is alone, unless we are to reckon as such his insertion of the incident of the fugitive between Matt.xxvi.56, 57, Luke xxii.

53, 54.
It appears then that, so far as there is an order in the Synoptic Gospels, the normal type of that order is to be found precisely in St.Mark, whom Papias alleges to have written not in order.
But again there seems to be evidence that the Gospel, in the form in which it has come down to us, is not original but based upon another document previously existing.

When we come to examine closely its verbal relations to the other two Synoptics, its normal character is in the main borne out, but still not quite completely.

The number of particulars in which Matthew and Mark agree together against Luke, or Mark and Luke agree together against Matthew, is far in excess of that in which Matthew and Luke are agreed against Mark.

Mark is in most cases the middle term which unites the other two.