Seeing Double in Matthew's Gospel

Why does the evangelist double down?

If you have read Matthew closely alongside the other Synoptics, you might have spotted a curious foible. Some lone characters in Mark are doubled in Matthew.

Consider the following instances:

• In Mark (and Luke), Jesus heals one demoniac in the Gerasenes (5:1-20), while in Matthew he heals two (8:28-34).

• In Mark, Jesus heals a blind man, Bartimaeus, who cries out ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’ (10:46-52), while Matthew has a story in which Jesus heals two blind men, outside of Jericho, who cry out: ‘Son of David, have mercy on us!’ (20:29–34).

• Earlier in the Gospel, Matthew has another story of Jesus healing another two blind men, who also cry out, ‘Have mercy on us, Son of David!’ (9:27-31).

This doubling might even extend to the animal kingdom. In Mark, we are told that Jesus rode a colt into the holy city, while Matthew features a donkey and its colt.

What is going on with this pattern of doubling in the Gospel? Is Matthew relaying a more complete account of what took place, or is there something else at play?

In this post, I discuss four common attempts to make sense of Matthew’s doubling down, before making my own (tentative) suggestion to get to the bottom of it.