The Gospel Harmony

The 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 (1537) 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 an 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 the section below.

Event	Matthew	Mark	Luke	John
Crown of thorns	Matthew 27:29	Mark 15:17		John 19:2–5
Blood curse	Matthew 27:24–25
Carrying the cross	Matthew 27:27–33	Mark 15:20–22	Luke 23:26–32	John 19:16–17
Crucifixion of Jesus	Matthew 27:34–61	Mark 15:23–47	Luke 23:33–54	John 19:18–38

Early Church and Middle Ages

Tatian’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 (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 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 (perhaps based on the Diatessaron) 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 (One from Four) 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 (Magdalene college, Cambridge, item Pepys 2498) 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 (Bishop of Ghent) also published his harmony (1549), 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:

Oh that most excellent Harmony, which can only reconcile two contradictory reports, both stemming from the evangelists, by inventing a third report, not a syllable of which is to be found in any individual evangelist!

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 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.

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 (which has the same title) 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.

	Event	Type	Matthew	Mark	Luke	John
1	Pre-existence of Christ	miscellaneous				John 01:01–18
2	Genealogy of Jesus	nativity	Matthew 01:01–17		Luke 03:23–38
3	Birth of John the Baptist	nativity			Luke 01:05–25
4	Annunciation	nativity			Luke 01:26–38
5	Visitation of Mary	nativity			Luke 01:39–56
6	Birth of Jesus	nativity	Matthew 01:18–25		Luke 02:01–07
7	Annunciation to the shepherds	nativity			Luke 02:08–15
8	Adoration of the shepherds	nativity			Luke 02:16–20
9	Circumcision of Jesus	nativity			Luke 02:21
10	Infant Jesus at the Temple	nativity			Luke 02:22–38
11	Star of Bethlehem	nativity	Matthew 02:01–02
12	Visit of the Magi	nativity	Matthew 02:01–12
13	Flight into Egypt	nativity	Matthew 02:13–15
14	Massacre of the Innocents	nativity	Matthew 02:16–18
15	Herod the Great’s death	miscellaneous	Matthew 02:19–20
16	Return of the family of Jesus to Nazareth	youth	Matthew 02:21–23		Luke 02:39–39
17	Finding Jesus in the Temple	youth			Luke 02:41–51
18	Ministry of John the Baptist	miscellaneous	Matthew 03:01–12	Mark 01:01–08	Luke 03:01–20	John 01:19–34
19	Baptism of Jesus	miscellaneous	Matthew 03:13–17	Mark 01:09–11	Luke 03:21–22	John 01:29–39
20	Temptation of Jesus	miscellaneous	Matthew 04:01–11	Mark 01:12–13	Luke 04:01–13
21	Marriage at Cana	miracle				John 02:01–11
22	First Temple Cleansing	ministry				John 02:13–25
23	Jesus & Nicodemus	ministry				John 03:01–21
24	Return of Jesus to Galilee	ministry	Matthew 04:12–12	Mark 01:14–14		John 04:01–03
25	Exorcism at the Synagogue in Capernaum	miracle		Mark 01:21–28	Luke 04:31–37
26	The Growing Seed	parable		Mark 04:26–29
27	Rejection of Jesus	ministry	Matthew 13:53–58	Mark 06:01–06	Luke 04:16–30
28	First disciples of Jesus	ministry	Matthew 04:18–22	Mark 01:16–20	Luke 05:1-11	John 01:35–51
29	Miraculous draught of fishes	miracle			Luke 05:01–11
30	Beatitudes	sermon	Matthew 05:02–12		Luke 06:20–23
31	Young Man from Nain	miracle			Luke 07:11–17
32	The Two Debtors	parable			Luke 07:41–43
33	The Lamp under a Bushel	parable	Matthew 05:14–15	Mark 04:21–25	Luke 08:16–18
34	Expounding of the Law	sermon	Matthew 05:17–48		Luke 06:29–42
35	Seventy Disciples	ministry			Luke 10:01–24
36	Discourse on ostentation	sermon	Matthew 06:01–18
37	Parable of the Good Samaritan	parable			Luke 10:30–37
38	Jesus at the home of Martha and Mary	ministry			Luke 10:38–42
39	The Lord’s Prayer	ministry	Matthew 06:09–13		Luke 11:02–04
40	The Friend at Night	parable			Luke 11:05–08
41	The Rich Fool	parable			Luke 12:16–21
42	Samaritan Woman at the Well	ministry				John 04:04–26
43	The Birds of Heaven	ministry	Matthew 06:25–34		Luke 12:22–34
44	Discourse on judging	sermon	Matthew 07:01–05		Luke 06:41–42
45	Discourse on holiness	sermon	Matthew 07:13–27
46	The Test of a Good Person	sermon	Matthew 07:15–20		Luke 06:43-45
47	The Wise and the Foolish Builders	parable	Matthew 07:24–27		Luke 06:46–49
48	Cleansing a leper	miracle	Matthew 08:01–04	Mark 01:40–45	Luke 05:12–16
49	The Centurion’s Servant	miracle	Matthew 08:05–13		Luke 07:01–10	John 04:46–54
50	Healing the mother of Peter’s wife	miracle	Matthew 08:14–17	Mark 01:29–34	Luke 04:38–41
51	Exorcising at sunset	miracle	Matthew 08:16–17	Mark 01:32–34	Luke 04:40–41
52	Calming the storm	miracle	Matthew 08:23–27	Mark 04:35–41	Luke 08:22–25
53	Gerasenes demonic	miracle	Matthew 08:28–34	Mark 05:01–20	Luke 08:26–39
54	Paralytic at Capernaum	miracle	Matthew 09:01–08	Mark 02:01–12	Luke 05:17–26
55	Calling of Matthew	ministry	Matthew 09:09	Mark 02:13–14	Luke 05:27–28
56	New Wine into Old Wineskins	parable	Matthew 09:17–17	Mark 02:22–22	Luke 05:37–39
57	Daughter of Jairus	miracle	Matthew 09:18–26	Mark 05:21–43	Luke 08:40–56
58	The Bleeding Woman	miracle	Matthew 09:20–22	Mark 05:24–34	Luke 08:43–48
59	Two Blind Men at Galilee	miracle	Matthew 09:27–31
60	Exorcising a mute	miracle	Matthew 09:32–34
61	Commissioning the twelve Apostles	ministry	Matthew 10:02–04	Mark 03:13–19	Luke 06:12–16
62	Not peace, but a sword	ministry	Matthew 10:34–36		Luke 12:49–53
63	Messengers from John the Baptist	ministry	Matthew 11:02–06		Luke 07:18–23
64	Paralytic at Bethesda	miracle				John 05:01–18
65	Lord of the Sabbath	ministry	Matthew 12:01–08	Mark 02:23–28	Luke 06:01–05
66	Man with withered Hand	miracle	Matthew 12:09–13	Mark 03:01–06	Luke 06:06–11
67	Exorcising the blind and mute man	miracle	Matthew 12:22–28	Mark 03:20–30	Luke 11:14–23
68	Parable of the strong man	parable	Matthew 12:29–29	Mark 03:27–27	Luke 11:21–22
69	Eternal sin	ministry	Matthew 12:30–32	Mark 03:28–29	Luke 12:08–10
70	Jesus’ True Relatives	ministry	Matthew 12:46–50	Mark 03:31–35	Luke 08:19–21
71	Parable of the Sower	parable	Matthew 13:03–09	Mark 04:03–09	Luke 08:05–08
72	The Tares	parable	Matthew 13:24–30
73	The Barren Fig Tree	parable			Luke 13:06–09
74	An Infirm Woman	miracle			Luke 13:10–17
75	Parable of the Mustard Seed	parable	Matthew 13:31–32	Mark 04:30–32	Luke 13:18–19
76	The Leaven	parable	Matthew 13:33–33		Luke 13:20–21
77	Parable of the Pearl	parable	Matthew 13:44–46
78	Drawing in the Net	parable	Matthew 13:47–50
79	The Hidden Treasure	parable	Matthew 13:52–52
80	Beheading of John the Baptist	ministry	Matthew 14:06–12	Mark 06:21–29	Luke 09:07–09
81	Feeding the 5000	miracle	Matthew 14:13–21	Mark 06:31–44	Luke 09:10–17	John 06:05–15
82	Jesus’ walk on water	miracle	Matthew 14:22–33	Mark 06:45–52		John 06:16–21
83	Healing in Gennesaret	miracle	Matthew 14:34–36	Mark 06:53–56
84	Discourse on Defilement	sermon	Matthew 15:01–11	Mark 07:01–23
85	Canaanite woman’s daughter	miracle	Matthew 15:21–28	Mark 07:24–30
86	Deaf mute of Decapolis	miracle		Mark 07:31–37
87	Feeding the 4000	miracle	Matthew 15:32–39	Mark 08:01–09
88	Blind Man of Bethsaida	miracle		Mark 08:22–26
89	Confession of Peter	ministry	Matthew 16:13–20	Mark 08:27–30	Luke 09:18–21
90	Transfiguration of Jesus	miracle	Matthew 17:01–13	Mark 09:02–13	Luke 09:28–36
91	Boy possessed by a demon	miracle	Matthew 17:14–21	Mark 09:14–29	Luke 09:37–49
92	Coin in the fish’s mouth	miracle	Matthew 17:24–27
93	Bread of Life Discourse	sermon				John 06:22–59
94	The Little Children	ministry	Matthew 18:01–06	Mark 09:33–37	Luke 09:46–48
95	Man with dropsy	miracle			Luke 14:01–06
96	Counting the Cost	parable			Luke 14:25–33
97	The Lost Sheep	parable	Matthew 18:10–14		Luke 15:04–06
98	The Unforgiving Servant	parable	Matthew 18:23–35
99	The Little Children	ministry	Matthew 18:01–06	Mark 09:33–37	Luke 09:46–48
100	The Lost Coin	parable			Luke 15:08–09
101	Parable of the Prodigal Son	parable			Luke 15:11–32
102	The Unjust Steward	parable			Luke 16:01–13
103	Rich man and Lazarus	parable			Luke 16:19–31
104	The Master and Servant	parable			Luke 17:07–10
105	Cleansing ten lepers	miracle			Luke 17:11–19
106	The Unjust Judge	parable			Luke 18:01–08
107	Pharisee and the Tax Collector	parable			Luke 18:09–14
108	Divorce and celibacy	ministry	Matthew 19:1-15
109	Jesus and the rich young man	ministry	Matthew 19:16–30	Mark 10:17–31	Luke 18:18–30
110	Jesus and the woman taken in adultery	ministry				John 08:02–11
111	The Workers in the Vineyard	parable	Matthew 20:01–16
112	Jesus predicts his death	ministry	Matthew 20:17–19	Mark 10:32–34 (Mark 08:31 Mark 09:31)	Luke 18:31–34
113	The Blind at Birth	miracle				John 09:01–12
114	Son of man came to serve	ministry	Matthew 20:20–28	Mark 10:35–45
115	The Good Shepherd	ministry				John 10:01–21
116	Blind near Jericho	miracle	Matthew 20:29–34	Mark 10:46–52	Luke 18:35–43
117	Raising of Lazarus	miracle				John 11:01–44
118	Jesus and Zacchaeus	ministry			Luke 19:02–28
119	Palm Sunday	ministry	Matthew 21:01–11	Mark 11:01–11	Luke 19:29–44	John 12:12–19
120	Second Temple Cleansing	ministry	Matthew 21:12–13	Mark 11:15–18	Luke 19:45–48
121	Cursing the fig tree	miracle	Matthew 21:18–22	Mark 11:12–14
122	Authority of Jesus Questioned	ministry	Matthew 21:23–27	Mark 11:27–33	Luke 20:01–08
123	The Two Sons	parable	Matthew 21:28–32
124	The Wicked Husbandmen	parable	Matthew 21:33–41	Mark 12:01–09	Luke 20:09–16
125	The Great Banquet	parable	Matthew 22:01–14		Luke 14:16–24
126	Render unto Caesar…	ministry	Matthew 22:15–22	Mark 12:13–17	Luke 20:20–26
127	Woes of the Pharisees	ministry	Matthew 23:01–39	Mark 12:35–37	Luke 20:45–47
128	Widow’s mite	sermon		Mark 12:41–44	Luke 21:01-04
129	Second Coming Prophecy	ministry	Matthew 24:01–31	Mark 13:01–27	Luke 21:05–36
130	The Budding Fig Tree	parable	Matthew 24:32–35	Mark 13:28–31	Luke 21:29–33
131	The Faithful Servant	parable	Matthew 24:42–51	Mark 13:34–37	Luke 12:35–48
132	The Ten Virgins	parable	Matthew 25:01–13
133	The Talents or Minas	parable	Matthew 25:14–30		Luke 19:12–27
134	The Sheep and the Goats	parable	Matthew 25:31–46
135	Anointing of Jesus	ministry	Matthew 26:01–13	Mark 14:03-09	Luke 07:36–50	John 12:02-08
136	Bargain of Judas	miscellaneous	Matthew 26:14–16	Mark 14:10–11	Luke 22:01-06
137	The Grain of Wheat	ministry				John 12:24–26
138	Last Supper	ministry	Matthew 26:26–29	Mark 14:18–21	Luke 22:17–20	John 13:01–31
139	Promising a Paraclete	ministry				John 16:05–15
140	Gethsemane	miscellaneous	Matthew 26:36–46	Mark 14:32–42	Luke 22:39–46
141	The kiss of Judas	passion	Matthew 26:47–49	Mark 14:43–45	Luke 22:47–48	John 18:02-09
142	Healing the ear of a servant	miracle			Luke 22:49–51
143	Arrest of Jesus	passion	Matthew 26:50–56	Mark 14:46–49	Luke 22:52–54	John 18:10–12
144	Sanhedrin Trial of Jesus	passion	Matthew 26:57–68	Mark 14:53–65	Luke 22:63–71	John 18:12–24
145	Blood curse	passion	Matthew 27:24–25
146	Carrying the cross	passion	Matthew 27:27–33	Mark 15:20–22	Luke 23:26–32	John 19:16–17
147	Crucifixion of Jesus	passion	Matthew 27:34–61	Mark 15:23–47	Luke 23:33–54	John 19:18–38
148	Myrrhbearers	resurrection appearance	Matthew 28:01	Mark 16:01	Luke 24:01
149	Empty tomb	resurrection appearance	Matthew 28:02-08	Mark 16:02-08	Luke 24:02–12	John 20:01–13
150	Resurrection of Jesus	resurrection appearance	Matthew 28:09–10	Mark 16:09-13	Luke 24:01-08	John 20:14–16
151	Noli me tangere	resurrection appearance				John 20:17–17
152	Road to Emmaus appearance	resurrection appearance			Luke 24:13–32
153	Resurrected Jesus appears to Apostles	resurrection appearance			Luke 24:36–43	John 20:19–20
154	Great Commission	resurrection appearance	Matthew 28:16–20	Mark 16:14-18	Luke 24:44–49	John 20:21–23
155	Doubting Thomas	resurrection appearance				John 20:24–29
156	Catch of 153 fish	miracle				John 21:01–24
157	Ascension of Jesus	resurrection appearance		Mark 16:19	Luke 24:50–53
158	Dispersion of the Apostles	miscellaneous	Matthew 28:19-20	Mark 16:19-20

Adapted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia