˃ No Detail Omitted Or Repeated Study Edition ˃ Charts Showing Harmonization of Key Passages ˃ Scripture References in Body of Text
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
˃ No detail omitted or repeated Study Edition ˃ Charts showing harmonization of key passages ˃ Scripture references in body of text The NET Bible Synthetic Harmony of the Gospels Study Edition Jerry Peyton, ed. Biblical Studies Press Richardson, Texas COPYRIGHT © 2015 BY JERRY PEYTON AND BIBLICAL STUDIES PRESS L.L.C. BETA VERSIONa ALL RIGHTS RESERVES SCRIPTURE QUOTED BY PERMISSION. ALL SCRIPTURE QUOTATIONS, UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED, ARE TAKEN FROM THE NET BIBLE® COPYRIGHT ©1996-2006 BY BIBLICAL STUDIES PRESS, L.L.C. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. The NET Bible® is not a shareware program or public domain document and may not be duplicated without permission, however: The NET Bible® verse text and the NET Bible® notes, hereafter called NET Bible®, is available on the internet at www.bible.org. You may copy the NET Bible® and print it for others as long as you give it away, do not charge for it and comply with our guidelines for content control including current valid copyright and organizational acknowledgments. In this case, free means free. It cannot be bundled with anything sold, used as a gift to solicit donations, nor can you charge for shipping, handling, or anything. It is provided for personal study or for use in preparation of sermons, Sunday school classes, undergraduate or seminary religion classes or other noncommercial study. This release is also available to organizations like the Gideons, who may distribute millions of copies of the NET Bible® text without royalty. This release does not apply to media other than paper. For free distribution of more than 1000 paper copies (or distribution in any other form, e.g. electronic), you must obtain written permission and comply with our guidelines for content control and include valid BSP copyright and organizational acknowledgements. The NET Bible® is a completely new translation of the Bible with 60,932 translators’ notes! It was completed by more than 25 scholars – experts in the original biblical languages – who worked directly from the best currently available Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. The translators’ notes make the original languages far more accessible, allowing you to look over the translator’s shoulder at the very process of translation. The NET Bible® was created to answer the global need for a Bible translation that can be distributed without cost on the Internet and be freely used in ministry. Not only can you download the NET Bible® free, we have licensed the NET Bible text without royalty to all publishers of Bible study software – a historical first. We give it away because our goal is to provide Trustworthy Bible Study Resources for free. “Ministry First” is a principle that guides all we do. The arranging and editing of the text and the chronology used in The Net Bible: Synthetic Harmony of the Gospels are solely the work of the editor, not of NET Bible® or Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. Biblical Studies Press 1101 E. Arapaho Rd, Suite 200 Richardson, TX 75081 www.bible.org a Unedited except by the editor. If you find errors (misspellings, punctuation, incorrect references) please contact the editor at [email protected]. 2 PREFACE I began compiling the four Gospels into one narrative when I taught the Gospels at a Christian high school. While I understood the unique value of each Gospel, I wanted students to see the flow of Christ’s life. And they appreciated not having to read every verse in all four Gospels, some of which are repeated almost verbatim. I also read a one-year chronological Bible and was amazed at how much I learned. After reading, studying and teaching the Bible for fifty years I saw things I hadn’t seen before because I saw them in their historical context. The Bible flowed more like a story or movie than a collection of books. But I was frustrated at having to read the exact same accounts in different books—especially the historical books of Kings and Chronicles. It was then I decided to compile my own chronological harmony of the Gospels—not because other harmonies do not exist or that I can produce a better harmony, but because doing it would force me to deal with the text myself. Editor’s Qualifications I have an MA in biblical studies from Dallas Theological Seminary and an MA in faith and culture, with an emphasis in international human rights, from Trinity International University. I gave my first sermon when I was fifteen, over fifty years ago, and have been a pastor or bible teacher ever since, including teaching Bible at a Christian college and high school. I did not formally study Greek or Hebrew and am not qualified to do Bible translation work, which is why I use the NET Bible for this harmony. Types of Harmonies In his article, “Is Harmonization Honest?” Dale Ellenburg describes four types of harmonies: Radical harmonizing suppresses variant details in one text by replacing them with preferred wording drawn from another version. Radical harmonizing tends to produce a uniform official version of a saying or story in separate Gospels. A synthetic harmony expands a text by adding details from one account to another to produce a conflated version that is not identical with any one source. Sequential harmonizing preserves two or more versions of the same material as separate incidents in the same narrative. This produces repetitions of sayings and stories that literary critics call “doublets.” . a parallel harmony presents two or more versions of the same account side by side in a synopsis for easy comparison. a For more information see Appendix II. “Issues & Strategies in Harmonizing the Gospels.” Sources Used While I sought to harmonize the four Gospels by evaluating every verse myself, I also used other harmonies for comparison and for the chronological framework: ñ Cheney, Johnston M. The Life of Christ in Stereo, Portland: Multnomah, 1969. (Sequential) ñ Cheney, Johnston M. & Ellisen, Stanley. The Greatest Story. Portland: Multnomah, 1994. (Sequential) ñ The One Year Chronological Bible (NLT). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 1996, 2004. (Parallel) ñ Cox, Steven & Easley, Kendall. HCSB Harmony of the Gospels. Nashville: Holman Bible, 2007. (Parallel) ñ Robertson, A T. A Harmony of the Gospels for Students of the Life of Christ: Based on the Broadus Harmony. San Francisco: Citizens Bank, 1950. (Parallel) a Steven Cox & Kendall Easley, HCSB Harmony of the Gospels (Nashville: Holman Bible Pub., 2007) 3. 5 ñ Jackson, Jeffrey Glen. Synopsis of Matthew, Mark and Luke. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2009. (Parallel) This is a Synthetic Harmony of the Gospels ñ No details have been omitted. For example, when different words are used in different Gospels referring to Jesus in the same event, the alternative words are put in parenthesis. Nothing is repeated that is not repeated within the same Gospel, including some things that sequential harmonies repeat because the details are different in different Gospels. ñ A four-year ministry of Jesus is adopted rather than the traditional three-year. I found the arguments for a four-year ministry by Johnston Cheney in his The Life of Christ in Stereo to be compelling. See Appendix IV (pp. 226-236) of his book for a detailed explanation. o The chronology of much of the Gospels is not known. I have relied heavily on Cheney’s chronology, while differing significantly from him in some instances. o This harmony flows like a movie script, where movement from one place or topic to another is geographically and topically logical. Chronology or sequence clearly stated in the text, such as “the next day,” are maintained. ñ For specific events or teachings, the Gospel with the most detail is used primarily, adding in details from other Gospels. This is Not a “Perfect Harmony”a ñ No attempt is made to produce a “perfect harmony” that claims to resolve all the differences in the gospel accounts. My conclusion is that a perfect harmony of the four Gospels where there are no differencesb in details (numbers, time, sequence, pronouns used, etc.) is an illusionary goal. There is evidence of differences in the most reliable New Testament manuscripts available, but this does not need to lessen the belief in and commitment to the supernatural origin and infallibility of the New Testament, including the inerrancy of the original autographs. But even those originals, which we do not have, most likely contain many of the same differences in details we encounter in the earliest manuscripts available today. ñ Difficulties in harmonizing details in the Gospels must be examined in light of the claims of the New Testament writers and Jesus himself. o “Every scripture is inspired by God” (2Tm 3:14-16). o Peter’s reference to Paul’s letters as “scripture” and “truth” (2Pt 3:15-17). o “No prophecy of scripture ever comes about by the prophet’s own imagination, for no prophecy was ever borne of human impulse; rather, men carried along by the Holy Spirit spoke from God” (2Pt 1:15-21). o Jesus’ prayer to the Father: “Set them apart in the truth; your word is truth” (Jn 17:17). o Jesus: “I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth pass away not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter will pass from the law until everything takes place” (Mt 5:18). ñ “What is at stake here is whether we have the ipsissima verba (the actual words of Jesus) or the ipsissima vox (the essential voice). There is no question that historians often record the voice of a character without due diligence to his very words at some points.”c a See Appendix II. “Issues & Strategies in Harmonizing the Gospels” for a more detailed explanation.