Gospel harmony explained

A gospel harmony is an attempt to compile the canonical gospels of the Christian New Testament into a single account. This may take the form either of a single, merged narrative, or a tabular format with one column for each gospel, technically known as a synopsis, although the word harmony is often used for both.

Harmonies are constructed for a variety of purposes: to create a readable and accessible piece of literature for the general public,[1] to establish a scholarly chronology of events in the life of Jesus as depicted in the canonical gospels, or to better understand how the accounts relate to each other.

Among academics, the construction of harmonies has been favoured by conservative scholars, though one scholar, B. S. Childs, opposes this.[2] Students of higher criticism see the divergences between the gospel accounts as reflecting the construction of traditions by the early Christian communities. Among modern academics, attempts to construct a single story have largely been abandoned in favour of laying out the accounts in parallel columns for comparison, to allow critical study of the differences between them.[3]

The earliest known harmony is the Diatessaron by Tatian in the 2nd century and variations based on the Diatessaron continued to appear in the Middle Ages.[4] The 16th century witnessed a major increase in the introduction of gospel harmonies and the parallel column structure became widespread. At this time visual representations also started appearing, depicting the life of Christ in terms of a "pictorial gospel harmony", and the trend continued into the 19th–20th centuries.

Overview

A gospel harmony is an attempt to collate the Christian canonical gospels into a single account. Harmonies are constructed by some writers in order to make the gospel story available to a wider audience, both religious and secular.[1] Harmonies can be studied by scholars to establish a coherent chronology of the events depicted in the four canonical gospels in the life of Jesus, to better understand how the accounts relate to each other, and to critically evaluate their differences.[3]

The terms harmony and synopsis have been used to refer to several different approaches to consolidating the canonical gospels. Technically, a "harmony" weaves together sections of scripture into a single narrative, merging the four gospels. There are four main types of harmony: radical, synthetic, sequential and parallel. By contrast, a "synopsis", much like a parallel harmony, juxtaposes similar texts or accounts in parallel format, synchronized by time, while preserving their individual identity, usually in columns.[5] Harmonies may also take a visual form and be undertaken to create narratives for artistic purposes, as in the creation of picture compositions depicting the life of Christ.

The oldest approach to harmonizing consists of merging the stories into a single narrative, producing a text longer than any individual gospel.[6] This creates the most straightforward and detailed account, and one that is likely to be most accessible to non-academic users, such as lay churchgoers or people who are reading the gospels as a work of literature or philosophy.

There are, however, difficulties in the creation of a consolidated narrative. As John Barton points out, it is impossible to construct a single account from the four gospels without changing at least some parts of the individual accounts.[7]

One challenge with any form of harmonizing is that events are sometimes described in a different order in different accounts – the Synoptic Gospels, for instance, describe Jesus overturning tables in the Temple at Jerusalem in the last week of his life, whereas the Gospel of John records a counterpart event only towards the beginning of Jesus's ministry. Harmonists must either choose which time they think is correct, or conclude that separate events are described. Lutheran theologian Andreas Osiander, for instance, proposed in Harmonia evangelica (1537) that Jesus must have been crowned with thorns twice, and that there were three separate episodes of cleansing of the Temple.[8] On the other hand, commentators have long noted that the individual gospels are not written in a rigorously chronological format.[9] [10] This means that an event can be described as falling at two different times and still be the same event, so that the substantive details can be properly brought together in a harmony, although the harmonist will still have the task of deciding which of the two times is more probable.

A less common but more serious difficulty arises if the gospels diverge in their substantive description of an event. An example is the incident involving the centurion whose servant is healed at a distance. In the Gospel of Matthew the centurion comes to Jesus in person;[11] in the Luke version he sends Jewish elders.[12] Since these accounts are clearly describing the same event, the harmonist must decide which is the more accurate description or else devise a composite account.[13] [14]

The modern academic view, based on the broadly accepted principle that Matthew and Luke were written using Mark as a source, seeks to explain the differences between the texts in terms of this process of composition. For example, Mark describes John the Baptist as preaching the forgiveness of sins, a detail which is dropped by Matthew, perhaps in the belief that the forgiveness of sins was exclusive to Jesus.[15]

The modern popularizing view, on the other hand, while acknowledging these difficulties, deemphasizes their importance. This view suggests that the divergences in the gospels are a relatively small part of the whole, and that the accounts show a great deal of overall similarity.[5] The divergences can therefore be sufficiently discussed in footnote in the course of a consolidated narrative, and need not stand in the way of conveying a better overall view of the life of Jesus[5] or of making this material more accessible to a wider readership.

To illustrate the concept of parallel harmony, a simple example of a "synopsis fragment" is shown here, consisting of just four episodes from the Passion.[16] A more comprehensive parallel harmony appears in a section below.

Early Church and Middle Ages

Tatian's influential Diatessaron, which dates to about AD 160, was perhaps the first harmony.[5] [4] [17] The Diatessaron reduced the number of verses in the four gospels from 3,780 to 2,769 without missing any event of teaching in the life of Jesus from any of the gospels.[5] Some scholars believe Tatian may have drawn on one or more noncanonical gospels.[18] The Gospel of the Ebionites, composed about the same time, is believed to have been a gospel harmony.[19]

Variations based on the Diatessaron continued to appear in the Middle Ages. For example, the Codex Sangallensis (based on the 6th century Codex Fuldensis) dates to 830 and has a Latin column based on the Vulgate and an Old High German column that often resembles the Diatessaron, although errors frequently appear within it. The Liege harmony in the Limburg dialect (Liege University library item 437) is a key Western source of the Diatessaron and dates to 1280, although it was published much later. The two extant recensions of the Diatessaron in Medieval Italian are the single manuscript Venetian from the 13th or 14th century and the 26 manuscript Tuscan from the 14th–15th century.[20] [21]

In the 3rd century Ammonius of Alexandria developed the forerunner of modern synopsis (perhaps based on the Diatessaron) as the Ammonian Sections in which he started with the text of Matthew and copied along parallel events.[5] [22] There are no extant copies of the harmony of Ammonius and it is only known from a single reference in the letter from Eusebius to Carpianus.[22] In the letter Eusebius also discusses his own approach, i.e. the Eusebian Canons in which the texts of the gospels are shown in parallel to help comparison among the four gospels.[22]

In the 5th century, Augustine of Hippo wrote extensively on the subject in his book Harmony of the Gospels.[23] Augustine viewed the variations in the gospel accounts in terms of the different focuses of the authors on Jesus: Matthew on royalty, Mark on humanity, Luke on priesthood and John on divinity.[24]

Clement of Llanthony's Unum ex Quatuor (One from Four) was considered an improvement on previous gospel harmonies, although modern scholars sometimes opine that no major advances beyond Augustine emerged on the topic until the 15th century. Throughout the Middle Ages harmonies based on the principles of the Diatessaron continued to appear, e.g., the Liege harmony by Plooij in Middle Dutch, and the Pepysian harmony in Middle English.[21] [22] The Pepysian harmony (Magdalene college, Cambridge, item Pepys 2498) dates to about 1400 and its name derives from having been owned by Samuel Pepys.[21]

15th–20th centuries

In the 15th and the 16th centuries some new approaches to harmony began to appear. For example, Jean Gerson produced a harmony in 1420 which gave priority to the Gospel of John.[22] Cornelius Jansen also published his harmony in 1549, focusing on the four gospels and even referring to the Acts of the Apostles.[25] On the other hand John Calvin's approach focused on the three synoptic Gospels, and excluded the Gospel of John.[26] [27]

By this time visual representations had also started appearing, for instance, the 15th-century artist Lieven de Witte produced a set of about 200 woodcut images that depicted the Life of Christ in terms of a "pictorial gospel harmony" which then appeared in Willem van Branteghem's harmony published in Antwerp in 1537.[28] The importance of imagery is reflected in the title of Branteghem's well known work: The Life of Jesus Christ Skillfully Portrayed in Elegant Pictures Drawn from the Narratives of the Four Evangelists[29]

The 16th century witnessed a major increase in the introduction of gospel harmonies. In this period the parallel column structure became widespread, partly in response to the rise of biblical criticism. This new format was used to emphasize the trustworthiness of the gospels. It is not clear who produced the first parallel harmony, but Gerardus Mercator's 1569 system is a well-known example.[30] In terms of content and quality, Johann Jakob Griesbach's 1776 synopsis was a notable case.[30]

At the same time, the rise of modern biblical criticism was instrumental in the decline of the traditional apologetic gospel harmony. The Enlightenment writer, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, observed:

W. G. Rushbrooke's 1880 Synopticon is at times considered a turning point in the history of the synopsis, as it was based on Marcan priority, i.e. the assumption that the Gospel of Mark was the first to be written. Thirteen years later, John Albert 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.

Towards the end of the 19th century, after extensive travels and study in the Middle East, James Tissot produced a set of 350 watercolors which depicted the life of Christ as a visual gospel harmony. Tissot synthesized the four gospels into a singular narrative with five chapters: "the Holy Childhood, the Ministry, Holy Week, the Passion, and the Resurrection". He also made portraits of each of the Four Evangelists to honor them.[31]

In the 20th century, the Synopsis of the Four Gospels by Kurt Aland[32] came to be seen by some as "perhaps the standard for an in-depth study of the Gospels."[33] A key feature of Aland's work is the incorporation of the full text of the Gospel of John.[33] Bernard Orchard's synopsis (which has the same title)[34] was of note in that it took the unusual approach of abandoning Marcan priority and assuming the synoptic gospels were written with Matthean priority and Markan posteriority.[33]

An example parallel harmony

The following table 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. The order below is based on those of Anglican William Newcome in 1778 and Baptists Steven L. Cox and Kendell H. Easley in 2006.

SeqEventTypeMatthewMarkLukeJohn
1 miscellaneous 1:1–18
2 nativity 1:1–17 3:23–38
3 nativity 1:5–25
4 nativity 1:26–38
5 nativity 1:39–56
6 nativity 1:18–25 2:1–7
7 nativity 2:8–15
8 nativity 2:16–20
9 nativity 2:21
10 nativity 2:22–38
11 nativity 2:1–2
12 nativity 2:1–12
13 nativity 2:13–15
14 nativity 2:16–18
15 Herod the Great's death miscellaneous 2:19–20
16 youth 2:39
17 youth 2:41–51
18 miscellaneous 3:1–12 1:1–8 3:1–20 1:19–34
19 miscellaneous 3:13–17 1:9–11 3:21–22 1:29–39
20 miscellaneous 4:1–11 1:12–13 4:1–13
21 miracle 2:1–11
22 ministry 2:13–25
23 ministry 3:1–21
24 ministry 4:12–12 1:14–14 4:1–3
25 miracle 1:21–28 4:31–37
26 parable 4:26–29
27 ministry 13:53–58 6:1–6 4:16–30
28 ministry 4:18–22 1:16–20 5:1–11 1:35–51
29 miracle 5:1–11
30 sermon 5:2–12 6:20–23
31 miracle 7:11–17
32 parable 7:41–43
33 parable 5:14–15 4:21–25 8:16–18
34 sermon 5:17–48 6:29–42
35 ministry 10:1–24
36 sermon 6:1–18
37 parable 10:30–37
38 ministry 10:38–42
39 ministry 6:9–13 11:2–4
40 parable 11:5–8
41 parable 12:16–21
42 ministry 4:4–26
43 ministry 6:25–34 12:22–34
44 sermon 7:1–5 6:41–42
45 sermon 7:13–27
46 sermon 7:15–20 6:43–45
47 parable 7:24–27 6:46–49
48 miracle 8:1–4 1:40–45 5:12–16
49 miracle 8:5–13 7:1–10 4:46–54
50 miracle 8:14–17 1:29–34 4:38–41
51 miracle 8:16–17 1:32–34 4:40–41
52 miracle 8:23–27 4:35–41 8:22–25
53 miracle 8:28–34 5:1–20 8:26–39
54 miracle 9:1–8 2:1–12 5:17–26
55 ministry 9:9 2:13–14 5:27–28
56 parable 9:17–17 2:22–22 5:37–39
57 miracle 9:18–26 5:21–43 8:40–56
58 miracle 9:20–22 5:24–34 8:43–48
59 miracle 9:27–31
60 miracle 9:32–34
61 ministry 10:2–4 3:13–19 6:12–16
62 ministry 10:34–36 12:49–53
63 ministry 11:2–6 7:18–23
64 miracle 5:1–18
65 ministry 12:1–8 2:23–28 6:1–5
66 miracle 12:9–13 3:1–6 6:6–11
67 miracle 12:22–28 3:20–30 11:14–23
68 parable 12:29–29 3:27–27 11:21–22
69 ministry 12:30–32 3:28–29 12:8–10
70 ministry 12:46–50 3:31–35 8:19–21
71 parable 13:3–9 4:3–9 8:5–8
72 parable 13:24–30
73 parable 13:6–9
74 miracle 13:10–17
75 parable 13:31–32 4:30–32 13:18–19
76 parable 13:33–33 13:20–21
77 parable 13:44–46
78 parable 13:47–50
79 parable 13:52–52
80 ministry 14:6–12 6:21–29 9:7–9
81 miracle 14:13–21 6:31–44 9:10–17 6:5–15
82 miracle 14:22–33 6:45–52 6:16–21
83 miracle 14:34–36 6:53–56
84 sermon 15:1–11 7:1–23
85 miracle 15:21–28 7:24–30
86 miracle 7:31–37
87 miracle 15:32–39 8:1–9
88 miracle 8:22–26
89 ministry 16:13–20 8:27–30 9:18–21
90 miracle 17:1–13 9:2–13 9:28–36
91 miracle 17:14–21 9:14–29 9:37–49
92 miracle 17:24–27
93 sermon 6:22–59
94 ministry 18:1–6 9:33–37 9:46–48
95 miracle 14:1–6
96 parable 14:25–33
97 parable 18:10–14 15:4–6
98 parable 18:23–35
99 parable 15:8–9
100 parable 15:11–32
101 parable 16:1–13
102 parable 16:19–31
103 parable 17:7–10
104 miracle 17:11–19
105 parable 18:1–8
106 parable 18:9–14
107 ministry 19:1–15
108 ministry 19:16–30 10:17–31 18:18–30
109 ministry 8:2–11
110 parable 20:1–16
111 ministry 20:17–19 8:31
9:31
10:32–34
18:31–34
112 miracle 9:1–12
113 ministry 20:20–28 10:35–45
114 ministry 10:1–21
115 miracle 20:29–34 10:46–52 18:35–43
116 miracle 11:1–44
117 ministry 19:2–28
118 ministry 21:1–11 11:1–11 19:29–44 12:12–19
119 ministry 21:12–13 11:15–18 19:45–48
120 miracle 21:18–22 11:12–14
121 ministry 21:23–27 11:27–33 20:1–8
122 parable 21:28–32
123 parable 21:33–41 12:1–9 20:9–16
124 parable 22:1–14 14:16–24
125 ministry 22:15–22 12:13–17 20:20–26
126 ministry 23:1–39 12:35–37 20:45–47
127 sermon 12:41–44 21:1–4
128 ministry 24:1–31 13:1–27 21:5–36
129 parable 24:32–35 13:28–31 21:29–33
130 parable 24:42–51 13:34–37 12:35–48
131 parable 25:1–13
132 parable 25:14–30 19:12–27
133 parable 25:31–46
134 ministry 26:1–13 14:3–9 7:36–50 12:2–8
135 miscellaneous 26:14–16 14:10–11 22:1–6
136 ministry 12:24–26
137 ministry 26:26–29 14:18–21 22:17–20 13:1–31
138 ministry 16:5–15
139 miscellaneous 26:36–46 14:32–42 22:39–46
140 passion 26:47–49 14:43–45 22:47–48 18:2–9
141 miracle 22:49–51
142 passion 26:50–56 14:46–49 22:52–54 18:10–12
143 passion 14:51–52
144 passion 26:57–68 14:53–65 22:63–71 18:12–24
145 passion 27:24–25
146 passion 27:27–33 15:20–22 23:26–32 19:16–17
147 passion 27:34–61 15:23–47 23:33–54 19:18–38
148 Myrrhbearers/Mary Magdalene at the Tomb resurrection appearance 28:1 16:1 24:1
149 resurrection appearance 28:2–8 16:2–8 24:2–12 20:1–13
150 resurrection appearance 28:9–10 16:9–11 24:1–8 20:14–16
151 resurrection appearance 20:17–17
152 resurrection appearance 24:13–32
153 resurrection appearance 16:9–12 24:36–43 20:19–20
154 resurrection appearance 28:16–20 16:14–18
155 resurrection appearance 20:24–29
156 miracle 21:1–24
157 resurrection appearance 16:19 24:50–53
158 miscellaneous 28:19–20 16:20

See also

References

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Averitt. Neil. The Single Gospel. 2015. Wipf and Stock. 978-1498221580. xix–xx.
  2. France, R.T. "Chronological Aspects of 'Gospel Harmony'," Vox Evangelica 16 (1986): 33–60.
  3. .
  4. .
  5. Steven L. Cox, 2007 Harmony of the Gospels B&H Publishing pp. 3–4
  6. Steven L. Cox, 2007 Harmony of the Gospels B&H Publishing p. 18
  7. John Barton, The Old Testament: Canon Literature and Theology Collected Essays of John Barton (Ashgate Publishing, 2013) p. 59.
  8. [Graham N. Stanton|Graham Stanton]
  9. Book: Fitzmyer, Joseph A.. A Christological Catechism (quoting Augustine). Paulist Press. 1991. 158.
  10. Book: Carson, D.A.. "Introduction to Matthew," in The Expositor's Bible Commentary vol. VIII. Zondervan. 1984. 38–39.
  11. 2 Matthew
  12. 2 Luke
  13. [Mark Allan Powell]
  14. Book: Zegarelli, Gregg . ONE: The Unified Gospel of Jesus, Second Ed. . OUG Press . 2017. 978-1548461263.
  15. [Francis Watson (theologian)|Francis Watson]
  16. Steven L. Cox, Kendell H Easley, 2007 Harmony of the Gospels pp. 207–211
  17. The Westminster Dictionary of New Testament and Early Christian Literature by David Edward Aune (2003) pp. 127, 211
  18. Bart Ehrman, Zlatko Plese, The Apocryphal Gospels: Texts and Translations (Oxford University Press, 2011) p. 231.
  19. Ron Cameron, The Other Gospels: Non-canonical Gospel Texts (Westminster John Knox Press, 1982) p. 103.
  20. Tatian and the Jewish Scriptures by Robert F. Shedinger (2002) pp. 28–32
  21. Patristic and Text-Critical Studies by Jan Krans and Joseph Verheyden (2011) pp. 188–190
  22. Encyclopedia Christianity: v. 4 by Erwin Fahlbusch (2004) p. 41
  23. Augustine through the ages: an encyclopedia by John C. Cavadini 1999 p. 132
  24. Christology, Controversy and Community by David G. Horell and Christopher M. Tuckett (2000) pp. 37–40
  25. François, W. (2012). Augustine and the Golden Age of Biblical Scholarship in Louvain (1550–1650). In: Gordon B., McLean M. (Eds.), bookseries: Library of the Written Word, vol: 20, Shaping the Bible in the Reformation: Books, Scholars and Their Readers in the Sixteenth Century. Leiden: Brill, 235–289 [252].
  26. John Calvin And the Printed Book by Jean François Gilmont (2005) p. 50
  27. A Harmony of the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke by John Calvin, David W. Torrance, (1995)
  28. Seeing Beyond the Word: Visual Arts and the Calvinist Tradition by Paul Corby Finney 1999 p. 398
  29. The Authority of the Word: Reflecting on Image and Text in Northern Europe, 1400–1700 by Celeste Brusati, Karl A. E. Enenkel and Walter S. Melion (2011) pp. 2–6
  30. What Have They Done to the Bible?: A History of Modern Biblical Interpretation by John Sandys-Wunsch (2005) p. 35
  31. Web site: James Tissot: Saint Luke (Saint Luc) (1886) . . Brooklyn Museum . 25 October 2014.
  32. Kurt Aland, 1982 Synopsis of the Four Gospels United Bible Societies
  33. Steven L. Cox, Kendell H Easley, 2007 Harmony of the Gospels pp. 6–8
  34. John Bernard Orchard, 1983 Synopsis of the Four Gospels T&T Clark Publishers