introduction phrases or a case of a more profound reediting which seeks to harmonize
entire stories with each other. Another reason for this generalized use
of the term “harmonizing” is that my central concern is to determine
whether a certain passage precedes or follows the synoptic gospels. For
this purpose, it is not necessary to create very detailed taxonomies for
the ways different traditions become mixed. It suffices to show that a
new composition includes a mixture of smaller or larger elements that
originally belonged to different gospels.
However, when I use the termgospel harmony,Irefertoaworkwhich
programmatically seeks to conflate parallel stories with each other. In the
Gospel of the Ebionites,therearetracesofgospelharmonybutthebest
example of a gospel harmony is Tatian’sDiatessaron. Nevertheless, most
of the cases to be discussed in the following fall into the broad category
of harmonizing readings or passages.