What is the third possibility you think is reasonable?
Do you deny that the Gospel of Saint John clearly lists THREE women named Mary at the Crucifixion?
However, when we consider that only one Gospel mentions Peter as the rock and the Catholic Church uses this one verse as "proof" of it's claim of "Papal Primacy".
Are you suggesting that the omission of some event is a denial? THREE Gospels list the women at the Crucifixion. Your comparison is meaningless.
By using your given choices we must conclude either Mark saw no need to mention the "Rock" thing -or- Matthew and Mark contradict each other and we must be prepared to accept that EVERY VERSE in the Bible is false.
What do you mean by "no need"? No, we can conclude nothing more than the fact that Saint Mark didn't record it.
We cannot take the absence of something as a contradiction. The Gospel of Saint John never mentions the Virgin Birth of the Lord, you don't honestly think he doubted it do you?
John doesn't mention the following women, only Mary Magdalene, - is it false?
RSV (IGNATIUS EDITION) MARK Chapter 16:1* * And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him.
RSV (IGNATIUS EDITION) LUKE 24:
1* But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices which they had prepared.
2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb,
3 but when they went in they did not find the body.
* 4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel;
5 and as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen." *
6* "Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee,
7 that the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise."
8 And they remembered his words,
9 and returning from the tomb they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest.
10* Now it was Mary Magdalene and Jo-anna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told this to the apostles;
It appears you are very selective in your "other Mary" choice or you are suggesting Mary, the mother of Jesus, didn't accompany the women. That would be strange wouldn't it?
You are aware that the Crucifixion and the discovery of the Resurrection are two different events aren't you? Since none of the Gospels even speak of Mary, the Mother of God at the empty Tomb, it is very probable that she wasn't there.
I will accept the fact that you haven't even addressed the clear FACT that the Gospel of John speaks of Mary of Cleophas as a concession of the fact that there were three Mary's at the Crucifixion.
Sirach 8:3
In a lot of gospel narratives the full picture is clear when all the four gospels are consulted together. The scene at the Crucifixion is one of them. The Confession of Peter is perhaps another.
Neither of these two groups of narratives are contradictory. People wrote down who they remembered. Since St. John remembered Mary the Mother of God at the Crucifixion, she was surely there. Since no one mentions Mary the Mother of God at the empty tomb, even though the group of the women is identified by names, she was surely not there.
In the case of St. Mark, the usual explanation of why the narrative about the confession of Peter is so short, — is that St. Mark was a disciple and a secretary of St. Peter, and his boss did not want to elevate himself. It surely does not contradict the fuller St. Mathew’s narrative.
Your confusion and doubt, OldReggie, is characteristic of the bookworm Protestant method, which is, at best, a forensic examination of written evidence, police-station style. A Catholic, in contrast, simply gets the story, knows the story and can explain it to others, because we get the story from the horse’s mouth, the Holy Mother Church and we trust her witness. The difference is between unprocessed information and knowledge.
However, I do not want to discourage your effort. I wish every Protestant applied that very analytical approach to the tenets of their faith and found out how the Protestant theological fantasies contradict the very letter of the scripture.