5. Modern Works of the Kind
bius, Augustine, and Gerson, and, be
sides these, two
Evangelia dia tessaron
in
manuscript in the monastery at
Heilbronn, and the work of Zacharias
of Chrysopolis, which last is a commentary on
the
Latin Tatian. While in this place Osiander appears
to have passed by Ammonius, he mentions him in
the preface alongside the others. What he regretted
in all these works was a lack of reverence for the
text of the Gospels in that this was changed in order
and in letter, even arbitrarily. It was his desire to
express in his work the full purport of the original
text and to have shine through it all the original
inspiration. If Christ himself
(
Matt. v. 18)
had
said that not one jot of the law of Moses was to fall,
much more was every word and letter of the Gospels
to be taken into account. From no consequence of
this principle did Osiander shrink. He regarded as
accounts of different events the cleansing of the
Temple as given in the Synoptics and in John, and
even distinguished between two events as narrated
in
Matt. xxi. 12;
Luke xix. 45;
and
Mark xi. 15.
And so throughout, slight differences in statement
seemed to justify him in regarding the narratives
as dealing with different events. Similarly his rule
that each of
the Gospel texts must stand in its own
order involved him in difficulties solved in the same
manner. And in this way he thought he had accom
plished new results in a real
Harmonia evangelica.
This name was kept by those who, with as great
regard for Scripture, were not carried to an excess
of unnaturalness. This was the case with Calvin,
in whose commentary on the separate Gospels and
in his
Commentarii in harmonium ex Matthaeo, Marco
et Luca
(1555) the material is divided into 222 sections.
In this the genealogies of Matthew and Luke
are referred to Joseph, the Sermon on the Mount
of Matthew and Luke are worked together, and a
similar plan rules throughout. In the work an
unfavorable opinion is pronounced upon the work
of Osiander. With a milder expression of opinion
of Osiander's work was the
Harmonia quatuor
evangelistarum,
by M. Chemnitz, published after his
death by P. Leyser and continued by J. Gerhard
(Frankfort, 1593-1611, improved and issued Frank
fort and Hamburg, 1652). The Greek text is accom-
panied by a translation in Latin and a learned com
mentary. Parallels follow each other. Regard for
the text involves often a doubling of the text and
comment. There is evident all the way along a
wide separation in idea from that of the Tatian
Diatessaron. It is no longer a history of Jesus that
is sought, in the words of the Gospel, but a learned
investigation of the different reports of the Evangel
ists in order to secure a well-grounded history of
Jesus. John Lightfoot undertook a harmony ar
ranged in four columns (part 1, London, 1644).
The design was carried out, however, by J. Clericus,
in his
Harmonia evangelica,
Amsterdam, 1699, in which the text was in four columns, and at the foot
an account interwoven from the four of the life of
Christ.
(T. Zahn.)
The principle of the Diatesearon or interwoven Gospel
has been employed somewhat extensively. How constantly
and variously this has been the case is illustrated by the
following list of works, which
is merely representative, not
at, all exhaustive: Johan Hind, The Storie of Stories; or,
the Life of Christ according to
as fours holy Evangelists, with a Harmonie of
them London 1652; [John Locke,] Hist. Of
our Saviour Jesus Christ, Related in
the Words of Scripture, ib. 1705; R. Willan, The Hist. of as
Ministry of Jesus Christ, Combined from
the Narrationa of as Four Evangel
ists i. 1782, and often; J. White,
Diateesaron; sive inlegra historia . . Jesu Christi Grace, ex iv. evangeliia . . . c
on feeta. Subjunpitur evangeliorum harmonia braroia, Oxford,
1799, and often O. G. Kilchler, Vita Jesu Christi Grace,
Leipsic, 1835; 6. T. Bloomfield, Epitome evangelica;
being a Selection from the Greek Testament, forming a
connected Nar rative of . . the Life and Ministry of Christ, London, 1846;
P. Lachhae, Concorde des gvangilea, Paris, 1854. In particu
lar, the demand that the life of Christ be studied from the
sources apart from the deliverances of the councils and from
church dogma has resulted in the last quarter of a century
in a large number of lives of Christ told in the form of the
combined narratives of the Gospels. Representative works
of this character in English are: W. S. White, The Hist. Of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Being the four Gospels
combined in one continuous Form, Lincoln, 1884; J. Mostyn,
The Four Gospels in One, London, 1889; A. T. Pierson, The
One Gospel; the four Evangelists in
one complete Record, New York 1889; J. G. Butler, The Fourfold Gospel, ib.
1890; C. C. James, The Gospel Hitt. of
Jesus Christ in a Connected Narrative,
London 1890; Earthly Footprints of
our Risen Lord. . Introduction by
J. Hall, New York, j 1891; R. W. Rawson, Gospel Narrative, or Life of
Jesus Christ . . . and Epitome and Harmony of the Goepela,
London, 1892; J. Strong, Our Lord's Life;
a continuous Narrative in the
Words of the Four Gospels, New York, 1892; W.
Pittenger, Interwoven Gospels
and Gospel Harmony, ib. 1893; A. E. Hillard, A
Continuous Narrative of the Life of Christ
in the Words Of as Four Gospels, London, 1894; W. H.
Withrow, A Harmony of as Gospels; being
as Life.of.Jesus in the Wrds of
the Four Evangelists, New York, 1894; The Life
and Teachings of Jesus Christ, a Continuous Narrative
Collated from the Gospels, ib. 1898- Anna M. Perry, The
Life of our Lord in the Words of the Four
Evangelists, ib. 1901; W. E. Barton T. G. Soares, and H. Strong,
His Life; a complete Story in
as Words of as four Gospels,
1906. Consult also E. A. Abbott,
Indices to Diateasarica, New York, 1908.
