are thoroughly divine both in thoughts and words, in origin, vitality, energy, and effect, and beneath
the human servant-form of the letter, the eye of faith discerns the glory of "the only begotten from
the Father, full of grace and truth."
The apostolic writings are of three kinds: historical, didactic, and prophetic. To the first
class belong the Gospels and Acts; to the second, the Epistles; to the third, the Revelation. They
are related to each other as regeneration, sanctification, and glorification; as foundation, house, and
dome. Jesus Christ is the beginning, the middle, and the end of all. In the Gospels he walks in
human form upon the earth, and accomplishes the work of redemption. In the Acts and Epistles he
founds the church, and fills and guides it by his Spirit. And at last, in the visions of the Apocalypse,
he comes again in glory, and with his bride, the church of the saints, reigns forever upon the new
earth in the city of God.
This order corresponds with the natural progress of the Christian revelation and was
universally adopted by the church, with the exception of a difference in the arrangement of the
Epistles. The New Testament was not given in the form of a finished volume, but the several books
grew together by recognition and use according to the law of internal fitness. Most of the ancient
Manuscripts, Versions, and Catalogues arrange the books in the following order: Gospels, Acts,
Catholic Epistles, Pauline Epistles, Apocalypse.^868 Some put the Pauline Epistles before the Catholic
Epistles.^869 Our English Bible follows the order of the Latin Vulgate.^870§ 77. Literature on the Gospels.
I. Harmonies of the Gospels.
They begin with Tatian’s Diatessaron, a.d. 170. See lists of older works in Fabricius, Bibl. Gr., III.
212; Hase, Leben Jesu, pp. 22–31 (fifth ed.); Robinson, Harmony, pp. v. and vi.; Darling,
Cyclopaedia Bibliog. (I. Subjects, cols. 761–767); and McClintock and Strong (Cyclop., IV.
81). We give the chief works from Griesbach to Rushbrooke.
Griesbach (Synopsis, Halle, 1774, etc., 1822); Newcome (Dublin, 1778 and often; also Andover,
1834); Jos. Priestley (in Greek, London, 1778; in English, 1780); Jos. White (Diatessaron,
Oxford, 1799, 1803); De Wette and Lücke (1818, 1842); Rödiger (1829, 1839); Greswell
(Harmonia Evangelica, 1830, 5th ed. Oxford, 1856; Dissertations upon an Harmony, etc., 2d
ed., Oxford, 1837, 4 vols.); Macbride (Diatessaron, Oxford, 1837); Wieseler (Chronolog.
Synopse, Hamb., 1843); Krafft (d. 1845; Chronologie u. Harmonie der 4 Evang. Erlangen,
1848; edit. by Burger); Tischendorf (Synopsis Evang. Lips., 1851, 1854; 4th ed., 1878); Rud.
Anger (Lips., 1852); Stroud (comprising a Synopsis and a Diatessaron, London, 1853) E.
Robinson (A Harmony of the Four Gospels in Greek, according to the text of Hahn, Boston,
1845, 1851; revised ed., 1862; in English, 1846); James Strong (in English, New York, 1852;
in Greek, 1854); R. Mimpriss (London, 1855); Douglas (1859); Sevin (Wiesbaden, 1866); Fr.
Gardiner (A Harmony of the Four Gospels in Greek, according to the text of Tischendorf, with(^868) This order is restored in the critical editions of Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Westcott and Hort.
(^869) The Codex Sinaiticus puts the Pauline Epistles before the Acts, and the Hebrews between 2 Thessalonians and 1 Timothy.
(^870) This order agrees with the Muratorian Fragment, the catalogue of Eusebius (H. E., III. 25), that of the Synod of Carthage
(a.d. 897), and the Codex Basiliensis. Luther took the liberty of disconnecting the Hebrews (which he ascribed to Apollos) from
the Pauline Epistles, and putting it and the Epistle of James (which be disliked) at the end of the Catholic Epistles (except Jude)
A.D. 1-100.