Gospel harmony


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 provide a straightforward devotional text for parishioners, to create a readable and accessible piece of literature for the general public, 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 always been favoured by more conservative scholars. 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.
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. 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. 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.
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. 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. 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.
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 that Jesus must have been crowned with thorns twice, and that there were three separate episodes of cleansing of the Temple. On the other hand, commentators have long noted that the individual gospels are not written in a rigorously chronological format. 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; in the Luke version he sends Jewish elders. 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.
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.
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. 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 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. A more comprehensive parallel harmony appears in a section below.
EventMatthewMarkLukeJohn
Crown of thorns
Blood curse
Carrying the cross
Crucifixion of Jesus

Early Church and Middle Ages

's influential Diatessaron, which dates to about AD 160, was perhaps the very first harmony. 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. Some scholars believe Tatian may have drawn on one or more noncanonical gospels. The Gospel of the Ebionites, composed about the same time, is believed to have been a gospel harmony.
Variations based on the Diatessaron continued to appear in the Middle Ages, e.g. Codex Sangallensis 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 is a key Western source of the Diatessaron and dates to 1280, although 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 14–15th century.
In the 3rd century Ammonius of Alexandria developed the forerunner of modern synopsis as the Ammonian Sections in which he started with the text of Matthew and copied along parallel events. There are no extant copies of the harmony of Ammonius and it is only known from a single reference in the letter of Eusebius to Carpianus. 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.
In the 5th century, Augustine of Hippo wrote extensively on the subject in his book Harmony of the Gospels. 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.
Clement of Llanthony's Unum ex Quatuor was considered an improvement on previous canons at the time, 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. The Pepysian harmony dates to about 1400 and its name derives from having been owned by Samuel Pepys.

15th–20th centuries

In the 15th and the 16th centuries some new approaches to harmony began to appear, e.g. Jean Gerson produced a harmony which gave priority to the Gospel of John. Cornelius Jansen also published his harmony, focusing on the four gospels and even referring to the Acts of the Apostles. On the other hand John Calvin's approach focused on the three synoptic Gospels, and excluded the Gospel of John.
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. 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
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 very first parallel harmony, but Gerhard Mercator's 1569 system is a well-known example. In terms of content and quality, Johann Jacob Griesbach's 1776 synopsis was a notable case.
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 Markan priority, i.e. the assumption that the Gospel of Mark was the first to be written. 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.
Towards the end of the 19th century, after extensive travels and study in the Middle East, James Tissot produced a set of 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.
In the 20th century, the Synopsis of the Four Gospels by Kurt Aland came to be seen by some as "perhaps the standard for an in-depth study of the Gospels." A key feature of Aland's work is the incorporation of the full text of the Gospel of John. John Bernard Orchard's synopsis was of note in that it took the unusual approach of abandoning Markan priority and assuming the synopics were written in this order: Matthew, Luke, Mark.

A parallel harmony presentation

The following table is an example of a parallel harmony, based on the list of key episodes in the Canonical Gospels. 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. The episode structure within the table is based on Edward Robinson's A Harmony of the Gospels in Greek as well as Steven L. Cox and Kendell H Easley's Harmony of the Gospels..
EventTypeMatthewMarkLukeJohn
1Pre-existence of Christmiscellaneous
2Genealogy of Jesusnativity–
3Birth of John the Baptistnativity
4Annunciationnativity
5Visitation of Marynativity
6Birth of Jesusnativity
7Annunciation to the shepherdsnativity
8Adoration of the shepherdsnativity
9Circumcision of Jesusnativity
10Infant Jesus at the Templenativity
11Star of Bethlehemnativity–
12Visit of the Maginativity
13Flight into Egyptnativity
14Massacre of the Innocentsnativity
15Herod the Great's deathmiscellaneous
16Return of the family of Jesus to Nazarethyouth-
17Finding Jesus in the Templeyouth
18Ministry of John the Baptistmiscellaneous
19Baptism of Jesusmiscellaneous
20Temptation of Jesusmiscellaneous
21Marriage at Canamiracle
22First Temple Cleansingministry
23Jesus & Nicodemusministry
24Return of Jesus to Galileeministry
25Exorcism at the Synagogue in Capernaummiracle
26The Growing Seedparable
27Rejection of Jesusministry
28First disciples of Jesusministry
29Miraculous draught of fishesmiracle
30Beatitudessermon
31Young Man from Nainmiracle
32The Two Debtorsparable
33The Lamp under a Bushelparable
34Expounding of the Lawsermon
35Seventy Disciplesministry
36Discourse on ostentationsermon
37Parable of the Good Samaritanparable
38Jesus at the home of Martha and Maryministry
39The Lord's Prayerministry
40The Friend at Nightparable
41The Rich Foolparable
42Samaritan Woman at the Wellministry
43The Birds of Heavenministry
44Discourse on judgingsermon
45Discourse on holinesssermon
46The Test of a Good Personsermon
47The Wise and the Foolish Buildersparable
48Cleansing a lepermiracle
49The Centurion's Servantmiracle
50Healing the mother of Peter's wifemiracle
51Exorcising at sunsetmiracle
52Calming the stormmiracle
53Gerasenes demonicmiracle
54Paralytic at Capernaummiracle
55Calling of Matthewministry
56New Wine into Old Wineskinsparable
57Daughter of Jairusmiracle
58The Bleeding Womanmiracle
59Two Blind Men at Galileemiracle
60Exorcising a mutemiracle
61Commissioning the twelve Apostlesministry
62Not peace, but a swordministry
63Messengers from John the Baptistministry
64Paralytic at Bethesdamiracle
65Lord of the Sabbathministry
66Man with withered Handmiracle
67Exorcising the blind and mute manmiracle
68Parable of the strong manparable
69Eternal sinministry
70Jesus' True Relativesministry
71Parable of the Sowerparable
72The Taresparable
73The Barren Fig Treeparable
74An Infirm Womanmiracle
75Parable of the Mustard Seedparable
76The Leavenparable
77Parable of the Pearlparable
78Drawing in the Netparable
79The Hidden Treasureparable
80Beheading of John the Baptistministry
81Feeding the 5000miracle
82Jesus' walk on watermiracle
83Healing in Gennesaretmiracle
84Discourse on Defilementsermon
85Canaanite woman's daughtermiracle
86Deaf mute of Decapolismiracle
87Feeding the 4000miracle
88Blind Man of Bethsaidamiracle
89Confession of Peterministry
90Transfiguration of Jesusmiracle
91Boy possessed by a demonmiracle
92Coin in the fish's mouthmiracle
93Bread of Life Discoursesermon
94The Little Childrenministry
95Man with dropsymiracle
96Counting the Costparable
97The Lost Sheepparable
98The Unforgiving Servantparable
99The Lost Coinparable
100Parable of the Prodigal Sonparable
101The Unjust Stewardparable
102Rich man and Lazarusparable
103The Master and Servantparable
104Cleansing ten lepersmiracle
105The Unjust Judgeparable
106Pharisee and the Tax Collectorparable
107Divorce and celibacyministry
108Jesus and the rich young manministry
109Jesus and the woman taken in adulteryministry
110The Workers in the Vineyardparable
111Jesus predicts his deathministry
112The Blind at Birthmiracle
113Son of man came to serveministry
114The Good Shepherdministry
115Blind near Jerichomiracle
116Raising of Lazarusmiracle
117Jesus and Zacchaeusministry
118Palm Sundayministry
119Second Temple Cleansingministry
120Cursing the fig treemiracle
121Authority of Jesus Questionedministry
122The Two Sonsparable
123The Wicked Husbandmenparable
124The Great Banquetparable
125Render unto Caesar...ministry
126Woes of the Phariseesministry
127Widow's mitesermon
128Second Coming Prophecyministry
129The Budding Fig Treeparable
130The Faithful Servantparable
131The Ten Virginsparable
132The Talents or Minasparable
133The Sheep and the Goatsparable
134Anointing of Jesusministry
135Bargain of Judasmiscellaneous
136The Grain of Wheatministry
137Last Supperministry
138Promising a Paracleteministry
139Gethsemanemiscellaneous
140The kiss of Judaspassion
141Healing the ear of a servantmiracle
142Arrest of Jesuspassion
143Sanhedrin Trial of Jesuspassion
144Blood cursepassion
145Carrying the crosspassion
146Crucifixion of Jesuspassion
147Myrrhbearersresurrection appearance
148Empty tombresurrection appearance
149Resurrection of Jesusresurrection appearance
150Noli me tangereresurrection appearance
151Road to Emmaus appearanceresurrection appearance
152Resurrected Jesus appears to Apostlesresurrection appearance
153Great Commissionresurrection appearance
154Doubting Thomasresurrection appearance
155Catch of 153 fishmiracle
156Ascension of Jesusresurrection appearance
157Dispersion of the Apostlesmiscellaneous

Citations