every quotation introduced in these pages has been carefully collated with the original, I have to avow, with the great author of the Evidences of Christianity, that I have found my materials ready to my hand, "my office consisting but in arrangement and selection." The evidence methodized and sifted, I have next made it my business to hear counsel on all sides of the questions to which it appertains; and have listened to the reason, as well as used the learning, which has been attracted to the argument. If this method entails an access of perplexity, it opens up at the same time the only avenue to an ultimately satisfactory decision; for if every author begins de novo to a task which, in one or other of its parts, has so long occupied the best intellects of Christendom, he must needs forego the most important aids to progress, and will be chiefly original in some fresh variety of error. While however I have endeavoured to enlighten my judgment (so far as my limited opportunities of reference would allow) I have not by any means absolved it from exertion. This work is eclectic: it seeks to embody (with due acknowledgment) whatever has struck the author as apt and valuable within the compass of its design. But it is as far as possible from a mere compilation: the argument pursued has at least the merit of unity of purpose and structure. In combining and assimilating to my own plan the scattered suggestions of others, I have not forgotten that a whole, to be worth anything, must be essentially the product of a single mind. The volume opens with a Tabular Harmony, to fortify and illustrate which is the business of the four succeeding Dissertations. Dissertation First proposes to investigate whatever belongs to the external history of the Canonical Gospels. Here the argument as to the order of St. Luke's and St. Mark's narratives, and the reference to the early Liturgies as indicative of the law of their origin, may be worthy of special consideration. As to the biographies of the various Evangelists, and the precise times of their writing, these are topics which, from the defect of data, must ever be somewhat obscure; and there are few enquiries better fitted to suggest the wisdom of acquiescence in necessary limits, of contentment with probabilities where certainty is unattainable, of forbearance from speculation on indeterminable subjects, and of submission to ignorance where nothing can be known. In Dissertation Second the internal phenomena of resemblance and contrast in the several Gospels-the adaptation and subserviency of each to the others-are brought under review. The most interesting problem in Biblical Science, the source namely of the affinities in the Three First Gospels, is included in this discussion. The way being thus prepared, it is next attempted in Dissertation Third to settle, on general principles, the outline of the Evangelical Harmony. The deference due to St. Mark's arrangement, and the place of Luke ix. 51, are the fundamental questions at this stage of the work. Dissertation Fourth, on Evangelical Chronology, forms a natural sequel to its immediate predecessor. The first three Sections here are little more than a sketch; but I am in hopes that the last, on the length of our Lord's Ministry, may reward in some degree the attention of the reader. The printing of the Harmony in full would have doubled or trebled the bulk of this volume. I have contented myself therefore with Part V. as a specimen. And this has been chosen as embracing the most important subject of the Harmonist's office-the events of Easter Morning. A copious synopsis of Contents has been prefixed, and a body of Notes and References appended, to the whole. It is not for the author to estimate the utility of his own CONTRIBUTIONS to a theme to which so many gifted and erudite minds have been for ages contributing. But if, in the present work, there have been built on a sound Historic Basis a sound theory of the Evangelic Relations; if the true Principles of Harmonizing have been elicited, and those principles, in the main outline, been truly applied; if new light have been thrown on the long-litigated question touching the Duration of the Dominical Ministry, and the Accounts of the Resurrection been adjusted to each other on a scheme which does no violence to the sacred text; if any or all of these objects shall prove to have been promoted or achieved, the reader may find in this little volume what more extensive treatises have as yet failed to furnish, and the author will have reason to thank God for His blessing on the studies of some laborious though delightful hours. LENT, 1848. CONTENTS. A TABULAR HARMONY OF THE HOLY GOSPELS: The Ministry in One Hundred and Forty Sections. The First Year: in Fifty Sections. The Second Year: in Ninety Sections. Nos. 25-74 165-188 FOUR DISSERTATIONS. Succession of the Evangelists stated. Pp. SECTION I.-ST. MATTHEW.-Sketch of his life.-Collection of testimonies as DATE, or absolute time, of the Gospel variously fixed.-1. Irenæus, "while St. ORDER, or relative time, of the Gospel.-Evidence external and internal that it LANGUAGE of the Gospel Hebrew or Aramaic.-Constitution of this tongue.— Objections to a Hebrew Original answered.-1. Its loss explained.-Gospel of the Nazarenes.-2. Testimony of Papias and other ancients vindicated.-3. Diction of the Greek St. Matthew quite consistent with its being a translation.-When and by whom made.-Meant for Hellenists or foreign Jews.-Probably anterior to St. SPHERE of the Gospel, Palestine.-Meant for Hebrew believers, or "Nazarenes." SECTION II.-ST. LUKE.-Sketch of his life.-Not the same with Lucius.-His life collateral with St. Paul's.-St. Luke a Gentile.-His preface.-Characteristic use of the phrase oi Bagßago-St. Luke perhaps a freedman.-A native of Antioch, not Troas or Philippi.-Perhaps ended his days in Achaia.-Not one of the DATE of the Gospel dependent on the place.-Process of limitation and exclu- sion. St. Luke wrote some time during the five years of St. Paul's twofold cap- tivity at Cæsarea and Rome.-St. Paul a prisoner for five years, not three only.- Those five years A.D. 55-60.-1. Chronology of the Acts.-2. Limits of Felix' Procuratorship.-3. St Paul imprisoned at Rome twice.-General conclusion, St. ORDER of the Gospel deducible from the arguments of Sections I, and III.- Testimony of Clemens Alexandrinus. SPHERE of the Gospel deducible from the residence of Theophilus, and the region of the joint labours of St. Luke and St. Paul.-Theophilus probably a fellow-citizen, perhaps former patron, of St. Luke's.-This Gospel the monument of a new epoch.-Meant for Gentile believers, or "Christians," of the East. 30, 31 SECTION III.-ST. MARK.-Sketch of his life.-The same with John Mark.— Not one of the Seventy.-St. Mark a Jew.-But not necessarily a Levite.-Collection of testimonies as to his life and Gospel.-Influence of S.S. Peter and Paul on the Gospels of S.S. Mark and Luke.-St. Mark's life collateral with St Peter's. -In what sense he was Interpres Petri.-Founder of the Church at Alexandria. -Not a martyr. 32-37 DATE of the Gospel.-Close upon St. Luke's.-Probably written about A.D. 58. 37, 38 ORDER of the Gospel.-Latest of the three.-Objections answered.-Place in the Canon.-Testimonies of the ancients.-Proof adduced.-1. St. Mark's a mixed text.-2. A composite arrangement.-3. Agreement with the other two Gospels, where they mutually agree.-4. St. Luke's characteristic diction occurs in St. Mark.-5. Paucity of original sections. . SPHERE of the Gospel, Rome and Alexandria, with the dependent provinces.Traces of St. Peter's influence.-Latinisms.-But St. Mark did not write in Latin. -Prevalence of the Greek language.-St. Mark's the Gospel of the West.- The Gospel of Rome and Alexandria. SECTION IV. ST. JOHN.-Sketch of his life.-His apostolic prerogatives.Meaning of Boanerges.-St. Paul the providential successor to St. James the Great. -Date of the B. Virgin's death A.D. 44.-Hiatus in St. John's biography from this year to A.D. 70.-The fellow-labourer of St. Peter.-His settlement at Ephesus.-Ages of the Apostles.-The three Epistles.-The Revelation.-Anecdotes of St. John's latter days. DATE of the Gospel.-First opinion, about A.D. 70.-Porches of Bethesda.-Second opinion, about A.D. 100.-Anti-Gnostic adaptations.-The term Logos.-Testimonies of Irenæus and Epiphanius. 38-44 44-46 46-51 51-53 ORDER of the Gospel.-Proofs of its being the last. SPHERE of the Gospel.-Ephesus the representative of Constantinople.-Catholic range of St. John's design.-The earlier Gospels local, like the primitive Liturgies. -But St. John's the Gospel of Christendom. 53, 54 54, 55 GENERAL SUMMARY. 56 DISSERTATION II.-MUTUAL RELATIONS OF THE GOSPELS. Mutual Relations stated generally.-Those of the three first or synoptic Gospels the same, that of the fourth or embolimaic Gospel different, in kind. SECTION I.-GENERAL RELATION OF THE THREE FIRST GOSPELS TO EACH OTHER.— Peculiar phenomena of agreement and difference.-Five ways of accounting for these.-1. INSPIRATION.-2. COMMUNITY OF SUBJECT.-3. ORAL GOSPEL or Evangelium Commune.-4. ORIGINAL DOCUMENT or Protevangelium.-These rejected.— 5. RECOURSE TO EACH OTHER.-This the true solution.-Objections answered.1. Evangelists not naming each other.-2. Discrepancies.-3. Repetitions.-4. That it is injurious to their authority not to suppose them independent. SECTION II.-RELATION OF St. LUKE TO ST. MATTHEW.-St. Matthew an original author, St. Luke not.-Auxiliary informants of St. Luke. OMISSIONS in St. Luke, how explained. REPETITIONS.-Improved diction and arrangement.-Alternate condensation and expansion.-Circumstantial variety in incidents and new connexion in discourses. -A difficulty in certain dislocations of spoken matter.-How met. ADDITIONS.-Analogy of tendencies carried forward into these.-Preference of the similar to the same.-Number and value of the additions considered generally. -Different families of Parables in St. Matthew and St. Luke.-Share of the various auxiliary informants in the new matter Concluding Summary. 57 57-68 68-70 70-72 72-82 82-84 84, 85 |