THE STORY OF

J  E  S  U  S

THE HARMONIZED GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST, BLENDING 
THE ACCOUNTS OF MATTHEW, MARK, LUKE & JOHN

1) INTRODUCTION

THE STORY OF JESUS: The Harmonized Gospel of Jesus Christ, Blending the Accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John does exactly what its name indicates. 

None of the four separate gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John contains the full story of Jesus. Many details are missing from each. That makes it difficult to get the full picture. Even if you read all four gospels consecutively, it is difficult to put the story back together in your mind. But more often we are overwhelmed by the redundancy and, after reading Matthew, quit reading before we get through Mark. At best, if we do read all four books, the image we come away with is very disjointed.

The Story of Jesus takes a little from one account, then a little from another, to form one complete, powerful, sequential account.

By studying The Story of Jesus regularly, followers of Jesus Christ can more fully engrain into their hearts, minds and souls the example and the teachings of the Savior. By reading just a few pages a day, you can easily read this unified account of Jesus’ life every month – 12 times a year. Thus, very quickly, any lay disciple can become prepared to more truly walk in the footsteps of the Master, to share Jesus’ teachings, and to fill his own life with spiritual strength, peace and joy.

There have been numerous Gospel harmonies written by Bible scholars over the centuries. However, to date, most harmonies have been directed to other scholars and not to lay Christians. The Story of Jesus is aimed at helping everyday Christians to better know whom they follow.

Grateful acknowledgement is given to all prior harmonists whose work has greatly simplified the research required for this book. The two volumes turned to most frequently in compiling this harmony were the Harmony of the Synoptic Gospels for Historical and Critical Study, compiled by Ernest DeWitt Burton and Edgar Johnson Goodspeed [New York: Scribner, 1945] and Thomas M. Mumford’s Horizontal Harmony of the Four Gospels [Publisher’s Press, 1976].

With the regular cross references provided, the reader will note that a particular event in Jesus’ life may appear in Chapter 4 of one gospel, Chapter 12 of another and nowhere in the other two. Some of the Gospel writers apparently did not care if their writings were in strict chronological sequence. After all, they were more concerned with the substance and significance of their testimony than the history, per se.

Harmonists attempting to bring the four stories into a single, start-to-finish chronology, however, must attempt to interweave the four accounts into one consistent story in approximately the right sequence. This harmony is based on the best calculations of prior scholarly efforts. Sometimes, however, the stories seem to contradict one another. We must then decide whether one of the original writers has committed a human error or whether both accounts are indeed true, albeit incomplete, and are told from different perspectives.

For example, Matthew writes (27:10) that Judas Iscariot returned to the chief priests and elders repentant at betraying Jesus. He throws the 30 pieces of silver at their feet and commits suicide by hanging. The Jewish leaders, according to Matthew, took the blood money and bought a field in which to bury strangers. Luke, however, when writing in the Acts of the Apostles (1:16-19), says Judas bought a field with the money and that he fell down in it and his bowels gushed out. In this harmony we stay with Matthew’s account, since Acts is not part of the four gospels, per se. But if one were to try to reconcile the two accounts, one might conclude that Judas threw the money at the feet of the priests, hanged himself in the field, that when someone cut him down from the tree, his body fell to the ground and split open. Then the priests bought the field as a cemetery for the homeless. This book will position verses in such a way as to help the reader to see possible ways to reconcile apparent conflicts in history, but this editor will NOT add or change any of the original words, other than to add an occasional EDITOR’S NOTE, clearly marked as such.

It may be in some cases that the events being described are very similar but not the same event at all. For example, Matthew and Luke both refer to teachings we have come to know as the Sermon on the Mount. However, Luke says Jesus was standing in a plain when the multitude approached him. Are the two accounts referring to the same event, or did Jesus repeat some of his most famous sermon on a separate occasion? It certainly isn’t unusual for great teachers to repeat all or part of their best sermons on more than one occasion. On the other hand, perhaps the two accounts can be reconciled. Perhaps Jesus was in the plain when the multitude approached, and it was then that he led them into the foothills of the mountain where they could all see and hear him better as he taught.

In this harmony we take the latter approach and intertwine the sermons as recorded by Matthew and Luke, but we could be wrong.

As the original Gospel writers, however, we understand that the message of Christ is far more vital than a precise historical account. And if the harmonized, blended account presented in The Story of Jesus has historical faults, still the message comes through more beautifully and more powerfully than in reading any one of the original Gospel writers.

May the Holy Spirit be with you as you read this harmonized account of the Messiah that you may gain a greater understanding and appreciation for the King of Kings, the Lamb of God, the Savior of all mankind.

RETURN TO STORY OF JESUS TABLE OF CONTENTS

PROCEED TO NEXT CHAPTER