Have you ever noticed how many stories from the life and ministry of Jesus Christ are told in two or more of the four Gospel accounts, while only some of the key events are mentioned in all four?

 

While having four witnesses to the life of Jesus Christ is reassuring, the overlap and repetition found between their stories can make it difficult to know the full sequence of all of the events that happened during His short life and ministry.  In addition, those teachings and stories which are mentioned in more than one Gospel account have become well-known over time, while you may seldom hear of the important events that are found in only one of the Gospel accounts.

 

In order to be able to know the full sequence of all of the sayings and teachings of Jesus Christ, and to arrange all of the events from His life and ministry in chronological order, a unified four Gospel harmony was created called “The Synoptic Gospel”.  The Greek term synoptic means seeing together or seeing as one, and it describes the “parallel” material that is shared and repeated between the four Gospel accounts.  The amount of material that is shared in common between the Gospels ranges from as little as 10% of the contents of John being found within the other three Gospels, to fully the 85% of Mark’s Gospel being synoptic and repeated within the others.  This also means that only 15% of the material found in Mark’s Gospel is unique to Mark, and that at least 90% of the contents of the Gospel of John is mentioned only in John’s Gospel.

 

“The Synoptic Gospel” unifies the words of the four Gospels by arranging the words of their texts in four parallel columns side-by-side, which is known as a harmony.  During this process the verses were arranged and aligned to flow in chronological order, from the beginning of the life of Jesus to the end of His ministry.

 

Next, because each detail has to be mentioned only once, and not two, three or four times, a series of steps removed the overlapping and duplicated words that are shared and repeated between the four Gospel accounts to leave just one single version of each saying and event.  With the duplication removed the unified text that remained is 22% shorter to read when compared to reading each of the four individual Gospel accounts back-to-back.

 

To make the combined Gospel story easy to read and reference, the unified narrative of “The Synoptic Gospel” was divided into chapters, acts and scenes.  To further enhance understanding, a date and location is included at the beginning of each scene, along with a map of Israel or Jerusalem at the start of each chapter to show where Jesus travelled during each year of His three-and-a-half year long ministry.

 

Another useful feature is the 300 references to the Scriptures of the Old Testament, along with notes about some of the historical figures that are mentioned in the Gospel story, which helps to distinguish the various Herods and Marys.

 

With all of the sayings and teachings of Jesus Christ harmonized, unified and presented in chronological order, “The Synoptic Gospel” is very easy to read, and having all of the events in sequence shows how Jesus’ conflict with the Pharisees and Jewish authorities escalated over the years of His ministry, until they finally decided to have Jesus put to death.  This understanding of the increasing tension is not easy to see when the details are spread through the four separate Gospel accounts.

 

The chronological layout and advanced features of “The Synoptic Gospel” make reading it an enlightening experience, and after reading it you will know what happened, and gain a unique understanding of the teaching and the living sacrifice of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ.

 

For more information about “The Synoptic Gospel”, or to purchase a copy of the book, ebook or audiobook, visit their website: synopticgospel.com.