'Mark did not know the relative positions of these two villages on the Jericho road' (1963, 294-295). Indeed, Mark knew so little about the area that he described Jesus going from Tyrian territory 'by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee through the territory of the Ten Towns' (Mark 7:31); this is similar to saying that one goes from London to Paris by way of Edinburgh and Rome. The simplist solution, says Nineham, is that 'the evangelist was not directly acquainted with Palestine' (40)." Nobody seriously argues (except based on "faith") that the authors of John (probably written around 90 CE) or Luke (who was at best a disciple of Paul - possibly Philemon) were eyewitnesses either. The evidence pretty clearly suggests that none of the authors of the canonical Gospels were witnesses to the events described in them. Have we fallen into the trap of discussing arational vs. irrational faith? I would also add that the Gospel of John has a number of passages that strongly suggest a Gnostic origin. The version we see now may, in fact, as Helms argues, be a revised version of a Gnostic Gospel. Elaine Pagels gives this theory some consideration as well. Helms, after reviewing anti-heretic writings of the second century CE opposing the early belief that John was written by Cerinthus, concludes that there may have been an early "Gnostic" John that was revised to create the version we have today. The would certainly explain Pagels' misgivings about the strange mix