The Parallel Gospels and Analysis of the Four Parallel Gospels.
Collected by Edward Salmon. (Longmans.)—These two volumes can- not be said to oonstitate a harmony, as the writer views his subject from a point of view quite different from that taken up by the berme- nista, but they follow something of the same method. The text is exhi- bited in parallel columns, and resemblances and differences are pointed out. While the harmonist, however, endeavours to show that the four writers are in substantial, or even, according to the contention of some writers, in absolute agreement, Mr. Salmon points out what he holds to be discrepancies, or even contradictions. The harmonists are some- times disingenuous; they not unfrequently make out their resemblances by distorting the originals. Mr. Salmon has an inclination in an opposite direction. The theory that the four Gospels are independent narra- tives does not please him at all. He sees an original in the Gospel of St. Matthew, and finds causes, theological or other, for all divergencies from this original that are now to be observed. We cannot accept as an adequate account of St. Mark's Gospel that "the text is (with few exceptions) as far as it goes nearly identical with the parallel portions of St. Matthew's." On the contrary, the text has marked peculiarities, phrases, for instance, of minute and graphic description, which tell strongly against any theory, except that of an independent origin. Much, however, may be learnt from these volumes, which have anyhow the merit of regarding the subject in a new light.
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