A Harmony of the Gospels

by A.T. Robertson

book

Genres: Theology, Reference, Christian, Christianity, New Testament, Religion, Biblical Studies

305 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1932

About the author

Archibald Thomas Robertson was a Southern Baptist preacher and biblical scholar whose work focused on the New Testament and Koine Greek.

Robertson received his M.A. in Theology from Wake Forest College and his Th.M. from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. In 1892, he was appointed professor of New Testament interpretation at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he remained until a his death.

Reviews

[Yibbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second time that I’ve worked through the Gospels chronologically. As always it was fascinating. There is something about reading four different views of a certain event that brings out the details with greater clarity. I would strongly recommend reading through them this way at least once.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gospels presented side-by-side for comparison and study. At the end of the book A.T. Robertson provides fourteen essays on”points of special difficulty in The Harmony,” addressing such topics as the probable time of Jesus’ birth, the two genealogies of Christ, and the length of Christ’s time in the tomb. I was particularly intrigued with the one containing the four lists of the Twelve Disciples and discussion on the disciples.

This book was published in 1922, and the version of the Bible used was not noted.

[Philip Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sublime.

[London · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend. It’s very interesting to read the Gospels side by side in a harmonized way and see how well it really flows. Reading them in this way allows you to study and read without flipping all over your Bible.

There are also great notes in the back that go over alleged contradictions amongst the Gospel authors’ accounts. The author gives the views of various scholars, many of which he very bluntly admits when they have arbitrary harmonies regarding certain contradictions. From time to time he’ll even include early harmonies from ecclesiastical writers like Polycarp of Smyrna, Ignatius of Antioch, Augustine of Hippo, etc.

I will warn that the translation is a bit dated compared to modern ones, but it’s readable.

[Tom Brennan · Rating 2 out of 5]

It should be noted, for the record, the bulk of this book is detailed lists of references placing the Gospels in the chronological order Robertson deems correct. The explanations for why he chooses that order are much smaller, amounting to little more than a few chapters. In those few chapters, Robertson kowtows entirely too much for my comfort to the theological liberals of his day. He also assumes a rather already voluminous knowledge on the subject matter at hand for the reader. In short, the book is neither persausive nor logical nor thorough nor organized.

It's not useless. Just almost.

[SusanwithaGoodBook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gospel in Life: A Harmony of the Gospels for Students of the Life of Christ by A. T. Robertson (2021 Book 94)

This book presents each of the gospels together but in parallel columns. This is helpful for comparing the different versions side-by-side, but it does make the text rather tiny, particularly in the ebook version. I had to zoom in and out a lot. Where only one gospel covers an event that passage is presented alone, so the formatting varies quite a bit throughout the book.

I think the best part of this book, though, is the footnotes and ending appendices which give a lot of extra info on choices Robertson made in chronology and some insights and references on difficult passages.

This was definitely not the easiest version of the gospels to read, but it is one of the more helpful in terms of detail.

[Steve Dustcircle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Makes it quite easy to see where each gospel differs and conflicts. The con is that it was attempted to show it's one story instead of 4 differing rumors.