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 one of his foibles. 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.