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ENGLISH HARMONY

OF

THE FOUR EVANGELISTS,

GENERALLY

DISPOSED AFTER THE MANNER OF THE GREEK

OF

WILLIAM NEWCOME,

'ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH:

WITH A MAP OF PALESTINE, DIVIDED ACCORDING TO THE TWELVE TRIBES,

EXPLANATORY NOTES, AND INDEXES.

PHILADELPHIA :

PUBLISHED BY KIMBER AND CONRAD,

NO. 93, MARKET-STREET.

BrowA & Merritt, Printers, No. 24, Church-alley,

1809.

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7.23-1927

PREFATORY remarks on this publication are per. haps scarcely requisite. It may suffice to point out the utility of Harmonies in general, and to make a few addi. tional observations on this Harmony. Their uses are considerable in various respects. By placing the narrations of similar circumstances, as related by the several Evangelists, in opposite columns, their deviations or additions are more readily observed, and more easily compared. Thus arranged, obscure passages are frequently illustrated by the sugges. tion of a seemingly indifferent circumstance, and the de. ficiencies of one Evangelist are supplied by the more ample detail of another : by which means a full and connected history of our Saviour is framed ; and the distinct phrase. ology and idiom of each of these sacred writers is more conspicuously displayed. It may also thus be observed, that John's gospel, as appears from his numerous additions and omissions, was intended as a sequel to the others and written after them; and that Mark, as is proved by his insertion of new matter, did not merely epitomise the gos. pel of Matthew.

The most serious objection to this mode of distributing the gospel history is, that by contrasting the minute par. ticulars of a general relation of circumstances, a partial disagreement or seeming inconsistency is in various instances observed. These difficulties are generally explained and obviated by the notes at the end of this work. Some may possibly have escaped the notice of the editor ; others he has left in the state they were found, from a fear of attempting to illustrate by conjecture, the records of the most interesting and important work ever delivered to mankind. Many sufficient reasons might be advanced why these occur, but as he finds it impossible to enter into an investigation comprehending so great an extent of in

quiry, within the limits which he has prescribed for this i preface, he contents himself with quoting the judgment of

the learned prelate whose plan he professes to follow. “ The result of my thoughts and inquiries is, that every genuine proposition in scripture, whether doctrinal or historical, contains a truth when it is rightly understood; that the Evangelists conceived alike of the facts related by them, but sometimes place them in different lights, and make a selection from different circumstances accompanying them, and that their seeming variations would instantly vanish were the history known to us in its precise order and in all its circumstances."* A testimony, also, to the genuineness of the gospel history arises from trifling in. congruities which are observed by means of a Harmony; namely, that the Evangelists did not write in concert. “ Truth,” said a late writer, “ like honesty, often neglects appearances : hypocrisy and imposture are always guarded.

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*Newcome's Preface to his Greek Harmony.