39. These facts are enough to give us a clear and unified impression of
the course of Jesus' ministry. When, however, we seek to fill in the
details given in the different gospels, difficulties at once arise. Thus,
first, what shall be done with the long section which John introduces (i.
19 to iv. 42) before Jesus' withdrawal into Galilee? The other gospels
make that withdrawal the beginning of his public work. A second difficulty
arises from the unnamed feast of John v. 1. By one or another scholar this
feast has been identified with almost every Jewish festival known to us.
Another problem is furnished by the long section in Luke which is so
nearly peculiar to his gospel (ix. 51 to xviii. 14). If the section had no
parallels in the other gospels we might easily conclude that it all
belongs to a time subsequent to the final departure for Jerusalem; but it
contains at least one incident from the earlier ministry in Galilee (Luke
xi. 14-36; compare Mark iii. 19-30), and many teachings of Jesus given by
Matthew in an earlier connection appear here in Luke. Furthermore, the
section has to be adjusted to that portion of the Gospel of John which
deals with the same period and yet reports none of the same details.
40. If Mark has furnished the narrative framework adopted in the main by
the first and third gospels, the problem of the order of events in Jesus'
life becomes a question of the chronological value of Mark, and of the
estimate to be placed on the narrative of John. If the fourth gospel is
held to be of apostolic origin and trustworthy, the task of the harmonist
is chiefly that of combining these two records of Mark and John. The
testimony of the Baptist, with which the fourth gospel opens, must have
been given some time after he had baptized Jesus, and the ministry which
preceded Jesus' return to Galilee (i. 19 to iv. 42) belongs to a period
ignored by the other gospels. The first three gospels contain indications
that Jesus must have visited Judea before the close of his life. They give
no hint, however, of the time or circumstances of such earlier Judean
labor. In giving the emphasis they do to the work in Galilee, they present
a one-sided picture. When, therefore, we find in John a narrative of work
in Judea, confirmed by hints in the other gospels, we may justly assume
that the arrangement which fills out the ministry of Jesus by inserting at
the proper places in Mark's record the events found in John is essentially
true.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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