Harmony of the Gospels:
Just a tool to resolve discrepancies?
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| Sea of Galilee |
We saw in Part 1 how a Harmony of the Gospels can be used as an aid to resolve discrepancies. When 19th- and 20th-century academics treated the Gospels as if they were at war with one another, the individual teachings of the four Gospel-writers suffered. But a harmony is meant to bring peace, as this peaceful day on the Sea of Galilee.
One important facet of harmonizing is to identify when Gospels were describing the same event, or a different event with similar circumstances. The differing testimonies of the man 'demonized' by foul spirits (Matthew's account vs. Mark & Luke's account) are judged to be the same event, for all three Gospel writers show its appearance directly after Jesus calms the sea, and directly before the healing of the 12-year suffering woman and the raising of the 12-year-old girl.
Not so with Jesus overturning the tables in the temple (John 2:13-22 vs. Matthew 21:12-16, Mark 11:15-18, Luke 19:45-48). Not only do the details differ, but John places the event near the beginning of Jesus' ministry, while the other three place it near the end, just after Jesus' triumphant entry into the temple. We would not attempt to harmonize John's account with the others.
Also in the case of Jesus' rejection at Nazareth, Luke's account of what Jesus has to say differs substantially from what he says in Matthew and Mark (Luke 4:16-30 vs. Matthew 13:53-58, Mark 6:1-6). Here there is only approximate placement agreement between Matthew and Mark, who place the incident near the middle of Jesus' ministry. But there is a substantial difference from Luke's account, who places it closer to the beginning of Jesus' ministry. These are two events, not one.
Which brings us to the subject of History. We must remember,
THE GOSPELS ARE NOT HISTORY LESSONS.
They are Christianity lessons. More about that in Part 3.
What's a Harmony of the Gospels?
These used to be commonly found in the back pages of printed bibles, after Revelation and before the Index or Concordance. They collected into one place all the Gospel verses that described a particular event, so that the differences between them could be examined and researched. Using this tool Bible scholars could resolve the differences, and respond to critics who claimed that the Bible was self-contradictory.
Let's take an example: After Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee by boat, he encountered a man who was "demonized" by a legion of unclean spirits, as reported by Mark and Luke. But Matthew reports that there were two spirit-plagued men who encountered Jesus. Did one or two of the Gospel writers make a mistake?
The stock answer is, "Neither. There are no mistakes in the Bible. If Mark and Luke only reported one of the two men for their stories, they had a reason for doing so."
Is there evidence to support that view? In this case, yes. When Jesus is first confronted with these "demonized" men, he has a conversation with the unclean spirits, not with the men themselves. The voice that engages Jesus always refers to itself as "we," not "me," in all three Gospels.
But in Mark and Luke there is a second conversation, this one between a man (singular) and Jesus. The man wants to travel with Jesus, but Jesus tells him to go tell people how God freed him from unclean spirits. The man (singular) goes throughout the Roman territory of the Ten Towns telling what Jesus had done for him. For Mark and Luke, this is an important part of their story, so they simply ignored the second man, who had been freed from foul spirits but had not begged to go with Jesus.
And in Matthew? The second conversation is not present, perhaps not important to the lessons that Matthew is teaching in this context. Matthew therefor was free to report both demonized men without having to deal with the complication of their different histories after the spirits cast out. This is not to lay any blame on the person who didn't beg Jesus: he may simply not have been there by the time Jesus departed that area.
(This story is at Matthew 8:28-34, Mark 5:1-20, and Luke 8:26-39)
What about History?
As can be seen by this case, harmonizing the Gospels is an essential tool if a history of Jesus and the disciples is being attempted. Note that the Gospels themselves do not attempt to teach history, but instead use history as they tell their stories with the intent to teach the Gospel message of Salvation. We will go into that in more detail in PART TWO.
