Customer Reviews

A Harmony of the Gospels: New American Standard Edition

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This harmony of the gospels was recommended to me by a retired professor from Taylor University. I found the arrangement of material very defensible and very well organized. The essays at the end of the book give a good introduction for the uninitiated in fundamental problems in modern "criticism". Useful information on dating of events in the gospel narratives are also provided. I take exception to the critic who claimed that "The actual date of Christ's birth and death is written in stone and correlated by the Jubilee records." This view is held by a tiny minority, some of whom, to be charitable, have dubious academic credentials. On the other hand, both Thomas and Gundry, have published a number useful pieces of scholarship many of which can be purchased through Amazon.
I found the most obvious thing to jump out at me was the development of the controversies between Jesus and the Jewish leaders, and between Jesus and the village of Capernaum. Without some form of chronological guide it can be difficult to see the connections between events during Jesus' life. I found this to be the most helpful aspect of reading Thomas and Gundry's Harmony.

The book is well-coordinated and provides excellent footnotes which further amplify and clarify the Scripture in its historical/theological context. This edition, in the New American Standard Version, is easy to read, although I personally prefer the elegance of the King James Version (albeit that version does contain some obsolete and obscure words). It is wonderful to be able to compare the accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John side-by-side! I had a similar scholarly volume during my college days but somehow it and I parted company over the years (My old edition had a _sewn_ binding. Unfortunately, this edition has glued-in pages -- but the book should endure fairly well with reasonable care).

You won't go wrong with this fine reference. It is certainly helpful to anyone who desires a fuller understanding and appreciation of the New Testament, especially regarding the life and sayings of Jesus.

I probably read the Gospels four times a year; so I'm very familiar with the details. This book added a lot to my perspective and understanding of Jesus's earthly ministry by filling in gaps by the overlapping of the records. His ministry had several distinct shifts with regard to His public and private life which became clear. The scholarly notes were also very helpful. Believe it or not I went through this book in less than two weeks (not because it is short, it has the entire text of M,M, L, J but ) because it was so interesting.

This tool has been a tremendous help to me as I study the individual gospel accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. It helps one to understand the chronology of the events as well as a more full account of the events themselves - not, of course, discounting the value of reading the individual gospels within their own stated/implied purpose for writing. The more-literal translation of the New American Standard Bible (NASB) was a suitable choice for this sort of study (alternate translation notes are included under the text). The order of the text is preserved as much as possible. The editors also include paragraphs at the bottom of the page to briefly address problems of chronology, interpretation, harmonization or history. The outline for the harmony is one of the best features of the book as one can see at-a-glance the relationship of events to one another as well as understanding which Gospel writers chose to include particular events. This outline, by the way, is the same helpful harmony contained in the Macarthur Study Bible.

The essays in the back of the book are worth the price of the book in themselves.
Essay 1 - Is Harmony of the Gospels Legitimate?"
Essay 2 - A History of Harmonies
Essay 3 - Source Criticism
Essay 4 - Form Criticism
Essay 5 - Redaction Criticism
Essay 6 - Criticism of the Gospel of John
Essay 7 - Problems and Principles of Harmonization
Essay 8 - The Languages Jesus Spoke
Essay 9 - The Genealogies in Matthew and Luke
Essay 10 - The Day and Year of Christ's Crucifixion
Essay 11 - Chronology of the Life of Christ
Essay 12 - The Arrest and Trial of Jesus

I would like to comment on Essays 3-5. The authors provide brief but helpful overviews of each of these higher level criticisms - giving a balanced but critical review of their worth. Every Christian should possess at least an introductory-level of understanding of these perspectives. You see their conclusions reflected in everyday media outlets and public life.

Source Criticism involves conjecture how gospels writers were supposedly dependent on posited source documents (e.g. Two Source Theory including hypothesis of the source Q). Form Criticism involves trying to examine units of gospel tradition in the oral period, before they were edited into the first written sources proposed by source critics. Redaction Criticism involves focusing on the theology of the Gospel writers to analyze their intent with respect to the early Christian community. All of these areas are steeped in 19th Century rationalism and skepticism about the historical reliability and the supernatural origin and nature of the Gospels. Thomas and Gundry provide brief but compelling arguments (maybe one would say "criticisms") against each of these areas of thought.

This parallel uses the NASB study bible notes and comments. It is basically very good except for some paralleling. The authors claim chronology parallelism only, but there are some cases of topic parallelism. One example is claiming that the sermon on the mount and the sermon on the plane are the same event.

Parallel Gospels are very good for lay readers. You can use this one as long as you do not take as a Gospel truth (sorry for the pun) that the paralled passages are always identical events.

Many Bibles show a list of what verses harmonize in the Gospels, but this harmony shows the verses side by side and puts the whole story of Christ in chronological order. It has become our most popular Bible study class. My only complaint would be the strong pre-millennialist bias in the footnotes, but that is minor compared to the clear literal translation in English of the gospel texts.

Having spent a pretty good chunk of my sermon and lesson prep time since 1996 in the Gospels, I would consider Thomas & Gundry's HotG as a "desert island" book for studying the life of Christ.
Sure, I would argue in half a dozen places about T & G's choices of chronology and correctly paralleling certain texts. But overall, I find that they did a great job. The textual notes are fantastic.
I would agree with another reviewer that stated that the Essays section is worth the price of the Harmony, by itself. Granted, these essays are super-duper-conservative. This is the harmony that I recommend to church members (all but the youngest and most inexperienced, anyway). I am the type who would rather err on the side of being a little too conservative. But even though these essays are ultraconservative, they deal with less conservative viewpoints with a respectable degree of fairness.
My Thomas & Gundry Harmony is getting pretty threadbare from heavy use, and I've marked it up to the point where it looks like John Madden might have used it for a coloring book, if you know what I mean.
For any Evangelical, pretty conservative readers, teachers, or pastors, I give this book two thumbs way, way up! I have six or eight different harmonies, but this is the one I find myself turning to again and again.

This harmony is one of the best available and provides an excellent resource for readers from all backgrounds. The layout and additional helps both contribute added value to the very solid content.

Overall a good work. Easy to read and the essays in the back our interesting and informative. That being said, I would like to see more information about why the authors made some of the decisions that they did. For instance, very little is said about why they separated the call of the first four apostles in Matthew and Mark from the call of the same four in Luke. Perhaps they are right, but the explanation they give is basically that there are too many differences. When you look at the passages the differences are far fewer than in several places that clearly refer to the same event (eg birth, resurrection). Thus I would like to see a detailed companion on the reasoning process of the authors.

It is a great study aid for those who are interested in learning of Christ's life.
The comparison between the authors gives an insight that is not found in just reading the gospels singularly. I recommend it highly especially for those who are in Bible study groups.