On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
his order for that of Matthew , were the reasons for adopting the latter less weighty than they are . * The / events of this portion could not have extended over more than five months ; and of , this period a very considerable part was spent out of Galilee , and has no express record in any of the first three Gospels ; so that the events which they actually record , only occupied about ten or eleven weeks—a consideration which may have great influence in satisfying the mind that any one , not a personal witness , must have ( at
least ) great difficulty in ascertaining the order of occurrences which took place in a period so crowded with events , and in so limited a district as Galilee-f This difficulty must have been great , even within a short interval after the events themselves ; and much more when , as in the case of Luke at least , it was to be met , at the distance of thirty years from the time . As to MaTk , be was not an Apostle , and we have no proof that he attended the ministry of our Lord in Galilee : he could not have been with him at the time of the Sermon on the Mount , or he must have recorded some part of it .
On the other hand , St . Matthew was necessarily well acquainted with the transactions recorded ; and knew all the circumstances of locality , &c , so that unless some inconsistency or incoherency could be pointed out in his narrative , it would , as a matter of course , claim a preference over St . Mark ' s , as well as over St . Luke's , each taken singly . We have already shewn reason for our opinion , that even their accordance , in some parts , is insufficient , m the circumstances of the case , to establish their arrangement in opposition to Matthew ' s .
Commencing with the Ministry of the Baptist , * the Gospel of Matthew may be conveniently divided into six parts : § L The Ministry of the Baptist ; with the Baptism and Temptation of Christ : ch . iii . 1—iv . 11 . II . The Ministry of Christ in Galilee ( commencing after the imprisonment of the Baptist ) as far as the Mission of the Twelve : ch . iv . 12—xi . 1 . III . Occurrences succeeding the Mission of the Twelve till the Death of the Baptist , which completed their Return : ch . xi . 2—xiii . 58 . IV . Transactions from the Return of the Twelve , till the Termination of our Lord ' s Public Ministry in Galilee : ch . xiv . —xviii .
? In one part , Mark ( ch . iv . 35 ) does appear to make such a connexion , where we are not yet prepared to follow his order . After giviug his record of the parable of the Sower , &c ., he says , as in the common translation , " And the same day , when the even was come , * ' & . C ., ev ex-siyy t ^ y / xepp , oipioa ; ysvofABj / ys , and then
proceeds to record the stilling of the storm , and subsequent events . On comparing the passage with Luke ' s Gospel , we see reason to conclude that it forms part of a common document ( see p . 386 ) ; and as St . Luke ( ch . viii . 22 ) only gays , ev /** $ * j * n > vfA £ fa >* ' on a certain day , " perhaps their common document ( which would be ill Syro-chaldaic ) meant no more .
t The district which , in the Gospels , is peculiarly termed Galilee , though very populous , and containing a great number of towns and villages , was probably but little larger than Monmouthshire . Few who read the Gospels without attention to their topography , can be prepared for such a statement : but it is requisite to bear it in mind , when investigating the chronological arrangement of those invaluable narratives .
, X There appears no room to doubt that the first two chapters of Luke , formed an integral part of bis Gospel : but the first two chapters of Matthew , we regard as a Narrative—independent of Matthew's Gospel , though , perhaps , prefixed to it by the translator of the Gospel into Greek . * % See the corresponding division of Luke ' s Gospel , in p . 382 . * t
Untitled Article
45 $ On the Chronology and Arrangement of the Gospel Warrtitives *
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1831, page 452, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2599/page/20/
-