Harmony of the Gospels
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
Gospel harmonies were inevitable. One of the first impulses of someone studying a teaching or an event in Jesus’ life is to seek as many perspectives on that event as possible. Around AD 160 Tatian compiled a single narrative of the four Gospels, reducing the number of verses from 3,780 (four separate Gospels) to 2,769 verses comprising every event and teaching from the life of Jesus. This Harmony of the Gospels builds on a tradition of harmonization begun in the nineteenth century by John A. Broadus and continued by his protégé, A.T. Robertson.
The Harmony of the Gospels contains interpretive and clarifying notes by a number of scholars, some with differing views on the relationship between various Gospel accounts. Beyond the harmony, this volume includes articles designed to address issues that arise when one compares the four Gospels and seeks to give an integrated account of the life and teachings of Jesus. This harmony also contains eight four-color maps that illuminate the life and ministry of Jesus. This resource will be valuable to pastors and lay Bible teachers, and will serve well as a primary textbook in college and seminary courses on the Gospels and on the life and teachings of Jesus.
Please note that this resource does not contain the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) text which appears in the print edition. For enhanced functionalty and a customized experience, you can link your preferred Bible resource with your Harmony of the Gospels.
Top Highlights
“The most prominent theme is faith. John used the word for faith 98 times, more than any other writer. He used only its verbal form, ‘believing,’ never the noun ‘faith.’” (Page 12)
“The key difference between a synopsis and a parallel harmony is that the ‘harmony’ only lists a given text once, whereas a ‘synopsis’ may list it several times without the editors making a judgment as to where they think it best fits in the flow of the Gospels.” (Page 3)
“Each of the four Gospels arose because of unique needs in the emerging church. It seems the Holy Spirit inspired four different Gospels for at least four reasons.” (Page 9)
“Mark is the least Jewish and most Roman in perspective. This is evidenced by the specifically Roman characteristics of the book. Mark’s presentation includes the relationship Jesus had to authority: He is both under authority and in authority. It includes short, quick events as the core of the book. The action orientation fits the Roman mentality well. Mark begins with Jesus as an adult and ready for ministry. The Roman world had little place for genealogy. Mark translates some Aramaic phrases, presumably because they are foreign to the readers, and he alone includes Latin phrases.” (Page 11)
“Another kind of divergence we find in the Gospels can be attributed to each evangelist’s theological intent.” (Page 4)
Steven L. Cox is associate professor of New Testament and Greek at Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary. He was educated at Anderson College, Central Wesleyan College, and Erskine Theological Seminary, and he received his PhD from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Cox is the author of A History and Critique of Scholarship concerning the Markan Endings and Essentials of New Testament Greek: A Student’s Guide. He has extensive pastoral experience and is currently pastor of Big Creek Baptist Church, Millington, Tennessee.
Kendell H. Easley is professor of Christian studies and program director for the Master of Christian Studies, Union University. Easley has authored numerous books, including 52 Words Every Christian Should Know, Quick Source Guide to Understanding the Bible, Holman Illustrated Guide to Biblical History, and the volume on Revelation in the Holman New Testament Commentary (12 vols.). He holds degrees from John Brown University, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Reviews
3 ratings
Robert Keil
10/6/2015
Ben T
9/12/2015
I like this harmony of the gospels and based a college course on the life of Christ around this text. The cover is an illustration of the four gospels from the book of Kells. It is a revision of the standard Broadus/AT Robertson Harmony you may already love. As I recall, the Robertson harmony placed Mark in the far left column based on Markan priority. This harmony places readings in the order of the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, etc. The academic articles are of varying quality. Some are quite good others I felt were positively bad. Of course all of Robertson's original notes were fabulous, if dated. The classic version of Robertson utilized the 19th century Revised Version which desperately needed updating. The Logos version of the book fixes 2 weakness of this Harmony: translation and poor binding. The logos version allows you to select the translation to insert into the harmony... a very nice feature. So you can even select a Greek text if you like. Using this harmony actually gave me an unfavorable opinion of the Holman Christian Standard Bible because you can see how at times translators in different books choose different wording for identical Greek (compare the beatitudes). A major weakness to the print edition is the awful binding B&H books sometimes uses. B&H uses the lowest quality binding for hard back books that results in the covers coming off with regular use. There was a New American Standard edition in the 80s or 90s that had awful binding as well. My beloved Robertson Harmony which I bought in college has held up for over 20 years and shows no sign of wearing out soon. My print edition of this harmony didn't last a year and I saw students with covers torn off as well. So, I am very please to have the harmony in digital form. By the way, gospel harmonies and synopses do not display the same in a mobile device or tablet as they do on the desktop. Mobile devices do not display the complete texts but only their references side by side. Its easy to understand why this is the case because the screens are so small.Nathaniel Baker
10/30/2014
