INTRODUCTION.

The

HUCK'S SYNOPSIS is a German harmony of the First Three Gospels. Greek text of the Gospels is arranged in three parallel columns, with the parallelism of every phrase and word showing in detail. In this translation, the American Revision. is used instead of the Greek text. "Huck's volume is probably the best thing we have in its class." This is the opinion of a leading American scholar.

Between the First Three Gospels on the one hand and the Book of John on the other, there is a wide difference in material, in purpose, and in point of view. Whether there be little or much significance in these differences, there is, at any rate, a growing disposition on the part of all New Testament scholars to study the Synoptic and the Johannine records separately. To those who ponder over these differences and their significances, this book will doubtless be welcome.

It will also be welcome to those who are interested in the relation of Matthew, Mark, and Luke to one another, and in the problem of their sources. The work is based on the theory that Mark is the original document. It shows, at a glance, how the Mark and the " Logia" sources were worked together into Matthew and Luke, and also the additional material derived from neither of these two sources. It suggests the question, Why is not the material of the "Introduction" and the "Jesus Risen" sections found in Mark, nor at all in duplicate? Often a word, phrase, or section is inserted in one column only; sometimes there are significant omissions from one of the columns. These appear at a glance, and they always raise the question, Why? If the Mark arrangement, which Huck follows in the Synopsis, be accepted as chronological, wel have an order of events very suggestive as compared with that given in harmonies of the four Gospels.

The Old Testament Quotations (see Appendix) show, in tabulated form, the Hebrew character of Matthew. The Johannine Parallels suggest the question, Why does John duplicate nearly twice as much material from four chapters of Mark (xii-xv, with parallels) as from all the other Synoptic Gospels combined? The Parallels and Duplicates raise the query, Why are these particular passages, nearly all of a peculiar and similar nature, so frequently imbedded in the Synoptic stratum?

The suggestiveness of this Synopsis to those who take pleasure in inquiry into the questions suggested above, is my apology for presenting it in English. Incidentally, it is a reference table of parallel passages, and contains excellent outlines of the discourse sections.

ROSS L. FINNEY.