Reading the Gospels Together The garden/Gethsemane – Part 3 For his part Matthew follows Mark very closely making only a few minor changes to the story. Some of those changes were perhaps Matthew’s attempt to “correct” Mark since Mark speaks of Jesus returning to his sleeping disciples three times but departing only twice – Matthew speaks of all three. Matthew also expands the dialogue somewhat both in the reactions of Jesus to his disciples and his reaction to the cutting off of the ear by a bystander. And, as mentioned, Matthew drops out the story of the young man fleeing naked. But these changes are only minor and unimportant so we can conclude that Matthew has followed his source very closely in this part of the story.