Usebius1, St. Epiphanius2, and Theodoret3, speak of a Concord of the four Gospels composed by Tatian, an Heretick of the first Ages. He had disposed the Text of the Evangelists in such a manner, as to make one only of the four; but then he had maliciously suppressed the Genealogies of our Saviour related in St. Matthew and St. Luke, because he did not believe that Jesus Christ did really assume human Nature. Theodoret says, that he found above two hundred Copies of this Concord of Tatian’s in the Churches of his Diocess; many even of the Orthodox being glad to use it by reason of its shortness; but he prohibited it, and substituted our four Gospels in the room of it.
Victor of Capua, a Writer of the sixth Age, having met with an Harmony of the four Gospels, or a Book composed of the Text of the four Gospels, took this to be Tatian’s; which he therefore translated into Latin, and published in this Author’s Name. We have it still, at this day, printed in the Bibliotheca Patrum; and in the Orthodoxographi. But what demonstrates this not to be Tatian’s Harmony, is, that in the 5th Chapter we read the Genealogy of Jesus Christ, which certainly was not in this Author’s Gospel. Some say it is Ammonius’s of Alexandria, whom we shall now speak of.
Ammonius of Alexandria did likewise compose an Harmony of the Gospels, which we have in Latin translated by Ottomar Luscinius; and printed at Augsburg in 1523. and several times reprinted in the Bibliotheca Patrum. Others as Baronius, upon the Year 174, &c. attribute it to Tatian, just now mentioned by us. But it certainly is not his, for the very reason just now alledged by us. And it is very uncertain whether Ammonius be the Author of it.
The Augsburg Edition of it is in 4to. It was printed again at Mentz, in 1224, in 8vo. at Cologn, in 1532. revised by Gaspar Brusch at Herford, in 1544. in French at Lyons, in 1526, in 8vo. and in the Bibliotheca Patrum, of the Lyons Edition, tom. 3. p. 266. It is rather a Paraphrase, or an Abridgment of the four Gospels, than a real Concord; according to Valesius, in his Notes upon Eusebius, p. 84. and was composed in Latin by some Person who was a true Catholick.
Charles du Moulin, in the Preface to his Concord, is of opinion that the Success and Usefulness of this pretended Harmony is not answerable to the Pains that were taken about it; Quisquis eam elaboravit parum utiliter majorique labore quàm felicitate.
Theophilus of Antioch wrote an Harmony of the Gospels, as St. Jerom intimates in these Words of his 151st Letter ad Algasium; Theophilus Antiochenæ, Ecclesiæ septimus post Petrum Apostolum Episcopus, quatuor Evangelistarum in unum opus dicta compingens, ingenii sui nobis monumenta reliquit: But his Work has not been handed down to us. There are some who believe that St. Jerom took Tatian’s Harmony for Theophilus’s of Antioch.
Eusebius of Cæsarea wrote a Book concerning the Variations of the Evangelists, according to St. Jerom, in his Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Writers, chap. 81. and upon St. Matthew, chap. 1. But this is lost: We have now only his Evangelical Canons, or Rules, ranged in ten Columns; in which, at one glance, we see the Chapters wherein the Evangelists differ, or agree. These Canons are to be met with in several Manuscripts, and in many Greek and Latin Editions: In Greek only, in the Greek Editions of the New Testament, at the Louvre, by R. Stephens; at Paris, 1552, in fol. with his Letter to Carpathius. But the difference between the Chapters marked by Eusebius, and those which we use at present in our Bibles, is the reason that these Canons are now of little use to us.
St. Austin’s four Books, de Consensu Evangelistarum, are a kind of Harmony of the four Gospels, enlarged with Arguments and Discourses; whereas Tatian’s was composed in the very Words of the Evangelists, wrought up into one continued Narration.
This Work is in tom. 3. part 2. page 1. of the new Edition. It must have cost him a great deal of pains. He himself, in his 112th Treatise of St. John, calls it laboriosas Literas; and in the 117th, Res operosissimè disputatas. See what M. Simon says of it in his Critical History of the New Testament, chap. 18. p. 260.
Juvencus the Priest, in his poetical Translation of the Gospel, composed a kind of Concord of the Evangelists, and reconciles their Relations and Expressions. It was printed first at Paris, in 4to. afterwards at Lipsick, 1515, in fol. the last Edition, ibid. 1710, in 8vo. with the Notes of several Persons, under the Direction of Erhard Reuch. We find it likewise in the Latin Bibliotheca Patrum, of the Lyons Edition, tom. 5. p. 55.
Guy of Perpignan, Ludolphus the Saxon, Peter Lombard, John Gerson, Peter the Eater, Simon de Cassia, John Hus, and some others, have likewise several kinds of Harmonies of the Gospels. But they discover the bad Taste, the little Delicacy and Accuracy of the Age wherein they were written.
That of Guy is printed at Cologn, 1618, 1631, in fol. That of Ludolphus at Strasburg, 1483, 1537, in fol. under the Title of Vita Christi; afterwards at Venice, 1581. with Notes by John Datrago; and translated into French by John Langlois, at Paris, 1582, in fol.
That of Peter Lombard was printed at Paris in 1483, and 1561. Gerson’s at Cologn, 1546, in 8vo. and in the new Edition of his Works, tom. 4. p. 83. Altho this is placed among others which discover the bad Taste of their Authors, yet it has its use; for the learned Gerson wrote a continued History of the four Gospels, which required abundance of pains.
The Harmony of Peter the Eater, in Latin Comestor, is included in the Historia Scholastica, printed several Times, and in several Forms. That of Simon de Cassia, sirnamed Fidatus, of the Order of St. Austin, was printed at Cologn, in 1533, and 1540, in fol. That of John Hus at Nuremberg, 1558, in fol. and in the new Edition of his Works. See the Titles of these Authors in the Index.
Zachariæ Episcopi Chrysopolitani, Concordiæ Evangelistarum; at Cologn, 1535, in fol. and in the Bibliotheca Patrum, of the Lyons Edition, tom. 19. p. 732. of the Cologn Edition, tom. 12. It is rather a Comment on this Concord than a Concord itself, divided into four Books, with three Prefaces. Peter Prithox saw the Manuscript of it in the Library of Saint Denis, if we believe Labbé, de Scriptorib. Eccles. tom. 2. p. 506. We ourselves had the satisfaction of seeing it in the Library of St. Martin’s in the Fields, at Paris, at the time of our writing this Work.
Alberic, the Cistercian Monk, in his Chronicle for the Year 1157. says this Zachary was of the Order of the Præmonstratenses, and of the Monastery of St. Martin in Laon; without naming him in the quality of Bishop. We can say nothing certainly of his Dignity, nor in what time he lived. F. le Long supposes in 1157. and calls him Goldsborough.
Sebastian Barradius, a Jesuit, has published a Comment upon the Concord of the Gospels, in four Volumes in fol. The last Edition whereof is of 1622, in fol. at Antwerp. We have already taken notice of his best Work above; for his Comment is altogether moral, and fit only for Preachers. He was of Lisbon, turned Jesuit in 1558. and died in 1615. of his age 73. His Works were all printed at Cologn in 1628. in four Volumes in fol.
There is an Harmony of the Gospels ascribed to M. Arnaud; printed at Paris, in 1653, in 12mo. in Latin. It is short, and in very good esteem. It has been reprinted since his Death in M. de Sacy’s large Bible for Broncard at Liege, tom. 4. in French and Latin; with learned and useful Notes.
Cornelius Jansenius, Bishop of Ghent, has likewise written a Comment upon the Concord of the Gospels; printed at Lyons, in 1571, in fol. and in 1582, 1594. The last Edition of it is in 1684. in two Volumes. In his Comment he applies himself to the literal and mystical Sense taken from the Fathers, as he himself says in his Preface. In his Concord he observes first what he has taken out of each Evangelist, afterwards what is common in them all; and throws what is superfluous into the Margin.
Father Lamy, of the Oratory, published his Harmony at Paris, in 1689, in 12mo. To this he has added a Comment, with a geographical and chronological Apparatus, in 4to. in 1699, and 1703. The last Edition is in two Volumes: wherein there is an Appendix, or Dissertation, to prove that there was but one Magdalen; Paralipomena to explain what he had omitted, or what was not sufficiently explain’d; together with a Catalogue of those who have written upon the four Gospels, at the end of the first Tome.
In his Concord he follows more particularly St. Matthew, and St. John, who were Apostles; and, consequently, had seen and heard what they relate of our Saviour. His Comment is intirely literal, and critical. He explains the Greek and Latin Texts in it, without however insisting on grammatical Difficulties. Sometimes he makes a Paraphrase, sometimes an Analysis, with the addition of long and learned Annotations. The Style is clear, uniform, and agreeable. He declares that he should never have taken his Pen in hand with a design of outdoing other Concords, if he had not thought that he had found out one more commodious; not only for the Disposition of the Words of the Evangelists, the Division into Books and Chapters, the Notes and Marks made use of in distinguishing the Evangelists, but likewise for the Series of our Saviour’s Actions, wherein the Concord of these divine Men, who were inspired to write them, does, in his opinion, principally consist: He confesses that the Connection which he proposes is quite new and different from all others which had hitherto appeared; and which, consequently, according to his Principles, could not but be defective and imperfect. He gives his Reasons, thro’out, for the Changes made by him in his Concord. At the end he makes an exact Description of the Holy Land; being persuaded that without knowing the Situation of it, it is not easy to understand well the Things which were transacted there. At the beginning of the fifth Book, he has inserted a Dissertation upon the Ceremonies observed by the Jews, at the Celebration of the Passover; whereof we have already spoken upon Exodus. See his Title in the Index.
F. Paul Pezron, of the Cistercian Order, of whom we have already said something on the Prophets, published the History of the Gospel confirm’d by the Histories of the Jews and Romans; at Paris, 1696, in two Volumes in 12mo. In it he describes the Life of Jesus Christ in a chronological Order; shews what the Faith was of the Primitive Fathers of the Church, inserts a good deal of critical Learning, and explains the most difficult Places. With it he has join’d two Dissertations; the first whereof, which is upon the Year of the Passion, contains several Passages from the Fathers, who place it under the Consulship of the two Geminus’s. The second tends to reconcile Saint John with the three other Evangelists, as to the last Passover.
His Work he has drawn up in the form of Annals; wherein he has been more extensive than Baronius, and has omitted nothing, either as to Facts, Precepts, or Councels, that had been touched upon by the Evangelists. So that we have here both a History and Comment together: And because we have no knowledge of our Saviour’s Actions from his Infancy to the beginning of his Ministry, he has filled this Void with some of the finest Parts of the Jewish, and Roman History, with the Succession of the High-Priests, with a List of the Tetrarchs who succeeded Herod, and with that of the Governours of Judea and Syria.
M. Toinard, after he had spent several Years in preparing an Harmony of the Gospels, and had seen several Leaves of it printed off, died at last before it could be published: but it has been put out by his Friends since his Death. It includes the Greek Text of the Evangelists, with an Abstract of their Narrative in Latin. This we have principally followed in the Harmony printed by us before our Comment on St. Mathew. M. Toinard’s Greek and Latin Concord was printed at Paris for Cramoisy, 1707, in fol. and 1709, in large Paper. Charles Caton de Court writ the Notes; and M. Fleuri, Canon of Chartres, had a share in the Prolegomena, as Dom. Liron informs us, in his Bibliotheque Chartraine, p. 321.
The Judgment given of it in the Memoirs of Trevoux, 1709. tom. 1. p. 59. is very much to its advantage. Indeed every thing in it discovers the exquisite Taste of the Author, as well with regard to the Disposition as the Remarks, which are very short, but accurate, and well chosen.
Toinard was of Orleans, where he was born in the Year 1627. and died in 1706. to the great regret of learned Men, not to say of all Europe.
M. le Roux, Parish-priest of Andeville, in the Diocess of Chartres, has published a very commodious Harmony. It is in two separate Volumes, one Latin, the other French; and the Texts of the Evangelists are distinguished by the colour of the Letters, some whereof are red, the others black: at Paris, 1701, in 8vo.
This Concord cost the Author ten Years Labour. He is persuaded that he has succeeded better than those who went before him. See what the Acts of Lipsick say of it upon the Year 1700, p. 82. he has added Notes to it. Dom. Liron, in his Bibliotheque Chartraine, speaks of this Work, and the Author of it, p. 302.
We have written a Harmony of the four Gospels, which is prefix’d to St. Matthew, and the Life of Jesus Christ, which we published with brass Cuts; as also a kind of Harmony of the four Evangelists.