is much smaller. It has been ascertained by Stroud that “if the total contents of the several Gospels
be represented by 100, the following table is obtained: Matthew has 42 peculiarities and 58
coincidences. Mark has 7 peculiarities and 93 coincidences. Luke has 59 peculiarities and 41
coincidences. John has 92 peculiarities and 8 coincidences. Why four Gospels.—
•To bring four separate independent witnesses to the truth.
•It is to give the Lord’s life from every point of view, four living portraits of one person. There
were four Gospels because Jesus was to be commended to four races or classes of men, or to four
phases of human thought,—the Jewish, Roman, Greek and Christian. Had not these exhausted the
classes to be reached, there would doubtless have been more Gospels. In all ages, the Jewish,
Roman and Greek natures reappear among men, and, in fact, make up the world of natural men,
while the Christian nature and wants likewise remain essentially the same. The FIRST GOSPEL
was prepared by Matthew for the Jew. He gives us the Gospel of Jesus, the Messiah of the Jews,
the Messianic royalty of Jesus. He places the life and character of Jesus, as lived on earth, alongside
the life and character of the Messiah, as sketched in the prophets, showing Christianity as the
fulfillment of Judaism. Mark wrote the SECOND GOSPEL. It was substantially the preaching of
Peter to the Romans. The Gospel for him must represent the character and career of Jesus from
the Roman point of view, as answering to the idea of divine power, work, law, conquest and
universal sway; must retain its old significance and ever-potent inspiration at the battle-call of the
almighty Conqueror. Luke wrote the THIRD GOSPEL in Greece for the Greek. It has its basis in
the gospel which Paul and Luke, by long preaching to the Greeks, had already thrown into the
form best suited to commend to their acceptance Jesus as the perfect divine man. It is the gospel
of the future, of progressive Christianity, of reason and culture seeking the perfection of manhood.
John, “the beloved disciple,” wrote the FOURTH GOSPEL for the Christian, to cherish and train
those who have entered the new kingdom of Christ, into the highest spiritual life.—Condensed
from, Prof. Gregory.
Gourd
Kikayan only in (Jonah 4:6-10) The plant which is intended by this word, and which afforded
shade to the prophet Jonah before Nineveh, is the Ricinus commnunis, or castor-oil plant, which,
•
a native of Asia, is now naturalized in America, Africa and the south of Europe. This plant varies
considerably n size, being in India a tree, but in England seldom attaining a greater height than
three or four feet. The leaves are large and palmate, with serrated lobes, and would form un
excellent shelter for the sun-stroken prophet. The seeds contain the oil so well known under the
name of “castor oil,” which has for ages been in high repute as a medicine. It is now thought by
many that the plant meant is a vine of the cucumber family, a gemline gourd, which is much used
for shade in the East.
•The wild gourd of (2 Kings 4:39) which one of “the sons of the prophets” gathered ignorantly,
supposing them to be good for food, is a poisonous gourd, supposed to be the colocynth, which
bears a fruit of the color and size of an orange, with a hard, woody shell. As several varieties of
the same family, such as melons, pumpkins, etc., are favorite articles of refreshing food amongst
the Orientals, we can easily understand the cause of the mistake.
Governor
In the Authorized Version this one English word is the representative of no less than ten Hebrew
and four Greek words.
•The chief of a tribe or family.