4 INTRODUCTION TO THE HARMONY. CHAP. I.
Capernaum, "Peter's wife's mother healed" would have been established, an assertion which
would have brought Mark into serious collision with Matthew. But with those plain Imperfects
before us, we feel authorized to assume a certain break after v. 22 (in Mark i.; v. 32 in Luke 4.)
and to paraphrase: "Now, on such a Sabbath-day, when Christ, as usual, was teaching in the
synagogue, there was"....etc.
Further, the vagueness of the expression Luke II. 37 éndètõlalẽsai ("as he spake") per-
mits us to disconnect this incident (v. 37—54) from what precedes it (v. I4—36). Had Luke intend-
ed positively to state, that the Pharisee's invitation reached Our Lord while He was delivering
the address recorded in v. 29—36, he would certainly have employed a much more definite
Connective, such as we see him using twice in this same Chapter, viz. v. 27 ("égéneto dè én tõ
légein aútòn taüta") and again v. 53 ("légontos de aútoữ taüta pròs aừtoừs). Compare
also Matthew 9. I 8 ("ta ūta aútoŭ laloũntos aútoĩs") and Matthew I 2. 46 ("ềti dè aútoũ
laloũntos toĩs 'óchlois"). We do not, of course, deny, that the term "én dè tõ lalẽsai" might
possibly be considered equivalent to these latter phrases, but we claim the liberty of taking every
legitimate advantage of the unquestionable ambiguity of the Connective, assuming Luke to mean,
that "once a Pharisee invited Christ to breakfast, while He was just engaged in speaking," —an
interpretation, considered thoroughly admissible also by Lange's Commentary.1) Were it not
for this solution, the difficulties in harmonizing this portion of Luke with the corresponding
part in Matthew and Mark would prove insurmountable.
As regards the meaning of tóte ("then"), "énékeinọ tộ kairọ ("at that time"), metà
taũta ("after these things"), these and similar expressions in many cases serve as mere Con-
nectives without implying any accurate specification of time, since they in Greek as well as in
modern languages frequently are used with reference to a period extending over weeks and
months, and therefore may be rendered by any of the following terms: "at that moment," "in
that hour," "on that day," "in those days," "within those weeks" etc. Hence it may happen,
that the "then" sometimes is equivalent to "just then;" this must however not necessarily follow,
but will mainly depend on the testimony of weighty, internal evidence supplied by the context.
As a rule, our broad term "about that time?" will exactly answer the meaning of "tóte,". Quite
different, of course, is the case, when we meet a definite term like "én aútẽ tẽ ĕmérạ" ("in
that day?") or "én aútẽ tẽ ṍrặ" ("in that hour").
After these preliminaries we proceed to the task of analysing the contents of the first three
Gospels, in accordance with the principles stated above. To mark the closeness or looseness
of the connecting link, we have introduced the following signs:
| to signify direct Connectives (see above "First Class").
꭛ „ „ indirect „ „ „ "Second „ ").
.... „ „ loose „ „ „ "Third „ ").
The Capitals in the column at the left are to indicate Chains of consecutive events. For con-
venience' sake we have also marked with small letters such single events as remain unconnected.
The Table comprises not the whole of the three Gospels, but only the narrative relating to
Christ's ministry in Galilee, since harmonistic difficulties are confined almost exclusively to this
part of Our Saviour's life.
1)A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, by J P. Lange, D.D., translated from the German by Philip
Schaff, D. D., New York, 1874. N. T. 10 Volumes.
