Harmonies

Efforts to make explicit the close proximity or exact relationship of parallel pieces of literature. Within the NT, the special relationships of the “synoptic” gospels provide not only the basic and best-known example for harmony, but the classic instance of the historical problem related to priority. While Tatian harmonized, and Augustine understood the need for viewing the gospels synoptically, the ancient church produced no “harmony” in the modern literary sense. The earliest modern usage of the analogous concept “synoptic” in the context of printing a “harmony” was that resulting from the textual studies of J.J. Griesbach.*