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Foreword
Purpose:
Anyone who has ever set out
to study the four gospel accounts has almost certainly faced one problem. How
do you approach them? All of the gospel accounts generally cover the same
events but they do so in different ways and the events occur in different
orders in each of the books. I am convinced that only the book of John is in
chronological order. Unfortunately, John is often not very helpful in
arranging events in the other three accounts of the gospel. Except for some
of the more important topics, John wrote about things that were not covered
in the other three books; this limits the opportunities to tie events
together in time.
It is often very confusing
trying to flip from one book to another and maybe even a third or fourth. But
this is necessary to get the whole picture. And what a beautiful picture it
is when it is all put together. Doubtless, the Lord had His reasons for
giving us His word in this way. And if it's His way then it's the best way. The
gospels do set a very good tone for the remainder of the Bible. The reader
quickly learns that answers can only be obtained through diligent study and
not merely by referring to a single passage.
I believe that even the most
eager Bible student can easily overlook items because of this arrangement in
the Gospels. This is why I thought that it could be very helpful to have a
combined account as a study aid. Nothing can ever take the place of God's
word in its pure form, but often study aids can help us to understand His
word better. This work should NEVER be used in place of God's word. It can
serve as a guide, but in the end, everyone should refer back to the Bible
itself for the final answer.
Limitations:
This work should not, under
any circumstance, be viewed as scripture, because it has been altered, even
if only slightly, from the original. It was my intent to simply "cut and
paste" blocks of text from the Bible as much as possible and form one
complete and cohesive story. For the most part I was able to do this
successfully. When an event was covered in more than one book I would choose
the most complete account for a basis and then add any additional details
which were found only in the other books. I again tried to use the original
wording where possible. When I inserted a phrase into a passage, I would
often have to add a word or two to connect everything and make it
grammatically correct.
I have tried to be as
objective as possible while preparing this. My goal was to simply combine the
facts as they were and not allow any of my interpretations of the material to
creep in. However, I am only human, and it is quite possible that some of the
material appears as it does because it is impossible to be perfectly
objective. Once again, this is another reason to only trust the Bible itself.
I also attempted to arrange
the events in chronological order as much as possible. Often there was no
clear cut order to follow so I chose the sequence as presented in the book of
Matthew. I do not believe Matthew is completely in chronological order, but
it does seem to be slightly better than Mark and much better than Luke. The
order of events in this work should be taken as nothing more than my opinion.
Again, the Bible itself should be referred to before any conclusions are
reached.
Specifications:
This work is based on the
King James translation of the Bible. It does however differ slightly in the
way it is presented. The words of Christ will be found in italics, instead of
the normal red lettering. The words of God are in boldface. And all quotes,
even those of God and Christ, are enclosed within quotation marks. The Old
English spelling of most words has been changed to the modern spelling. For
instance words like "publick" and "honour," as found in
the normal King James translation, would be found as "public" and
"honor" in this work.
The names of Old Testament
characters that appear in the gospels are often spelled differently in the
gospels than in the Old Testament. I changed them back to their original Old
Testament spelling. For instance the name "Esaias," as found in the
gospels, refers to Isaiah. In this work it will appear as Isaiah.
The system of chapters and
verses was not used for this work, but rather each story is included as a
single paragraph. This makes for easier reading, and allows things to be seen
in context more easily. Each story is given a title and beside the title is a
list of the verses from which the story was put together. For any story where
only one reference is cited the material should appear exactly as it does in
the Bible itself. It was not my goal to interpret the gospels but rather to
combine them with as few alterations as possible.
Final note:
Again, one final time, I
would like to emphasize the fact that this is only a study aid and nothing
more. My hope and prayer is that anyone who reads this will come away with a
better understanding of the gospels and a greater appreciation for the beauty
of God's Holy Word.
Tony Whiddon
October 13,
1989
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