Gospel harmony
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Gospel harmony is an attempt to merge or harmonize the canonical gospels of the Four Evangelists into a single gospel account, the earliest ancient example being the Diatesseron by Tatian in the second century. A gospel harmony may also establish a chronology for the events of the life of Jesus depicted in the four canonical gospels and how they relate to each other, see also Chronology of Jesus. Under modern scholarship, the effort has waned to portray any one harmony of events as totally correct. The process can also be hindered by discrepancies between various Gospels accounts of certain events.
The unique material of each gospel complicates the discernment of one, harmonized chronology. However, others consider the unique material crucial to narrowing down the possible chronological order. Some scholars have questioned the historicity of events in the canonical gospels.
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Approaches to harmony
The terms harmony and synopsis have been used to refer to approaches that aim to achieve Gospel harmony, although they are different approaches. Technically, a "harmony" weaves together sections of scripture into a narrative, merging the four Gospels. There are four main types of harmony: radical, synthetic, sequential and parallel. A "synopsis", much like a parallel harmony focuses on key events and brings together similar texts or accounts in parallel format, usually in columns.[1]
Tatian's Diatesseron harmony which dates to about 160AD was perhaps the very first harmony. In the third century the Christian Ammonius of Alexandria (Christian) developed the forrunner of modern synopsis as the Ammonian Sections in which he started with the text of Matthew and copied along parallel events. No other major Gospel harmonies appeared thereafter until the 15th century.
The 16th century witnessed a major increase in the introduction of Gospel harmonies. In this period the parallel column structure was introduced, partly in response to the rise in Biblical criticism. This new format was used to emphasize the trustworthiness of the Gospels. It is not clear who produced the very first parallel harmony, but Charles Dumoulin in 1565 and Gerhard Mercator in 1569 had used similar approaches. In terms of content and quality, Johann Jacob Griesbach's 1776 synopsis was a notable example.
In the 19th century, other "extract and merge" attempts were made, which were not technical harmonies, e.g. the 1819 Jefferson Bible which placed selected verses in chronological order, but removed large sections of text that Thomas Jefferson considered too supernatural.
W. G. Rushbrooke's 1880 Synopticon is at times considered a turning point in the history of the synopsis, for it was based on Markan priority, i.e. giving priority to the Gospel of Mark. Thirteen years later, John Broadus used historical accounts to assign priorities in his harmony, while previous approaches had used feasts as the major milestones for dividing the life of Christ.
In the 20th century, two separate books both titled Synopsis of the Four Gospels, one by Kurt Aland and the other by John Bernard Orchard became the standard texts in the field of Gospel harmony.[2][3]
A parallel harmony presentation
The following table, mainly events for which there is also a Wikipedia article, is an example of a parallel harmony. The order of events, especially during the ministry period, has been the subject of speculation and scholarly debate. While this harmony compares the work of several scholars, other harmonies may differ substantially on the placement of some events.
See also
References
- Orville Daniel: A Harmony of the Four Gospels, 2nd Ed., Baker Books Pub.
- R. Thomas & S. Gundry: The NIV Harmony of the Gospels, HarperCollins Pub.
- Edward Robinson: A Harmony of the Gospels in Greek, Revised Ed., pub. by Crocker & Brewster
- Henry Rutter, Evangelical harmony Keating and Brown, London 1803.
- Steven L. Cox, Kendell H Easley, 2007 Harmony of the Gospels ISBN 0805494448
Notes
- This article incorporates work from A Harmony of the Gospels in Greek by Edward Robinson, a publication now in the public domain.
- ^ Steven L. Cox, 2007 Harmony of the Gospels B&H Publishing ISBN 0805494448 page 3
- ^ Kurt Aland, 1982 Synopsis of the Four Gospels United Bible Societies ISBN 0826705006
- ^ John Bernard Orchard, 1983 Synopsis of the Four Gospels T&T Clark Publishers ISBN 056709331X
- ^ by Flavius Josephus
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an This placement of follows Edward Robinson: A Harmony of the Gospels in Greek, Revised Ed., pub. by Crocker & Brewster and Orville Daniel: "A Harmony of the Four Gospels", 2nd Ed., pub. by Baker Books
- ^ a b c d This placement of follows Orville Daniel: A Harmony of the Four Gospels, 2nd Ed., Baker Books Pub. and R. Thomas & S. Gundry: The NIV Harmony of the Gospels, HarperCollins Pub. but is placed later by Edward Robinson: A Harmony of the Gospels in Greek, Revised Ed., pub. by Crocker & Brewster
- ^ a b This placement of follows Orville Daniel: A Harmony of the Four Gospels, 2nd Ed., Baker Books Pub. and R. Thomas & S. Gundry: The NIV Harmony of the Gospels, HarperCollins Pub. but Luke 11:17-28 is placed with it by Edward Robinson: A Harmony of the Gospels in Greek, Revised Ed., pub. by Crocker & Brewster
- ^ a b c d e This placement of follows Orville Daniel: A Harmony of the Four Gospels, 2nd Ed., Baker Books Pub. and R. Thomas & S. Gundry: The NIV Harmony of the Gospels, HarperCollins Pub. but it is placed with Mark 3:23-35 by Edward Robinson: A Harmony of the Gospels in Greek, Revised Ed., pub. by Crocker & Brewster
- ^ This placement of follows Orville Daniel: A Harmony of the Four Gospels, 2nd Ed., Baker Books Pub. and R. Thomas & S. Gundry: The NIV Harmony of the Gospels, HarperCollins Pub. but is placed earlier by Edward Robinson: A Harmony of the Gospels in Greek, Revised Ed., pub. by Crocker & Brewster
External links
- Parallel Gospels in Harmony Online version of Parallel Gospels in Harmony: with Study Guide, by David A. Reed, a public domain book
- Complete Gospel texts, shown in four parallel columns, but not a harmony
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