Category Archives for "Harmonies"

Harmony of Bible records of appearances of the resurrected Jesus

By Mark Morgan | Harmonies , Jesus

Several books and letters in the Bible report Jesus’ interaction with many different people after his resurrection. However, since no one record includes all of the information, we need a harmony of Bible records of appearances of the resurrected Jesus.

The Bible passages which record events surrounding the resurrection of Jesus, the subsequent 40 days during which he met with his disciples and his ascension are as follows:

• Matthew 28:1-20
• Mark 16:1-20
• Luke 24:1-53
• John 20:1-21:25
• Acts 1:1-12
• 1 Corinthians 15:4-7

Jesus’ appearances after his resurrection are discussed in another article (Jesus’ appearances after his resurrection), but the current article tries to put the records of the appearances before Jesus ascension in chronological order.

Parallel records from Matthew, Mark, Luke, John (and Acts)

The gospel records can be interleaved with some effort and many have attempted to do so. Here is another attempt. Determining exactly when some of the events took place during the 40 days in which Jesus met with them is impossible. Some of the gospel records summarise these events or some of these events, in a paragraph or two, so the harmonisation of these passages is simply guesswork.

The harmonisation is most easily shown in a table format and is best viewed on a screen that is wider than it is high.

The Bible text in this harmony of Bible records of appearances of the resurrected Jesus is taken from the World English Bible (WEB) which has been released into the public domain.

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The times of Jehoshaphat

By Mark Morgan | Harmonies , Jehoshaphat

Bible records in the times of Jehoshaphat

Background

King David ruled over a united kingdom of Israel – the 12 tribes that had entered “the Promised Land”.  Today, this land is once again called Israel, although parts are now claimed by the Palestinians and Jordan.

After David’s death, his son Solomon became king and expanded the kingdom even further.  Sadly, in later life, love for his many foreign wives led him into idolatry. In response, God said that the kingdom would be split in two during the reign of his son, Rehoboam.  After Solomon died, Rehoboam became king, but could not hold the kingdom together. As predicted, the nation split in two: Israel, ten tribes ruled by a rebel called Jeroboam; and Judah, two tribes ruled by Rehoboam.

From then on, until Assyria destroyed Israel, the two nations swung pendulum-like between open war and a troubled co-existence. During this period, Jehoshaphat ruled Judah, following in the godly footsteps of his ancestor David (2 Chronicles 17:3).

Yet Jehoshaphat had a problem: he was too tolerant. Throughout his reign he looked for friendship and partnerships with the kingdom of Israel, despite their dedicated idolatry. He even made a marriage alliance with Ahab, king of Israel – Jehoshaphat’s son Jehoram married Ahab’s daughter Athaliah. Within 30 years, this unholy alliance had very nearly destroyed the kingdom of Judah.

This is also the setting for the work of the prophets Elijah and Elisha.

Parallel records from Kings and Chronicles

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Harmony of Bible records of the Roman trial and subsequent crucifixion of Jesus

By Admin | Harmonies , Jesus

The need for a harmony

In many of the events recorded in the Bible, details are written in more than one place.  For example, details of the reign of many kings are recorded in both Kings and Chronicles and sometimes in one or more prophets also.

When we are writing Bible-based fiction, we always want to make sure that our stories match the details given in the Bible and sometimes that requires the harmonisation of more than one record. Continue reading

Events around the birth of Jesus

By Mark Morgan | Harmonies , Jesus

Events around the birth of Jesus

We are given quite a bit of detail surrounding the birth of Jesus and his early life in the gospels of Matthew (Matthew 1:18-2:23) and Luke (Luke 2:1-52), but there is little overlap in the details given.  Putting the two together as a parallel record can help us understand when various events took place.Continue reading

Harmony of Bible records in Jeremiah’s time

By Mark Morgan | Harmonies , Jeremiah

Harmony of Bible records in Jeremiah’s time

Often the Bible reports events from the same time period in more than one book, and frequently the various books will concentrate on different details but still report overlapping information.  This article presents a harmony of Bible records in Jeremiah’s time.

(Last revised 9 January 2020

The Bible passages which record events in the times around the life of Jeremiah are as follows:

• 2 Kings 22-25
• 2 Chronicles 33-36
• Jeremiah
• Lamentations
• Ezekiel
• Daniel
• Habakkuk
• Zephaniah

Parallel records from Kings and Chronicles

The records in Kings and Chronicles interleave very easily, so they are best shown in a table by themselves from the time of Manasseh through to the events immediately after the destruction of Jerusalem. Some small sections of Jeremiah and Ezra are also included in places where they provide detail missing in one of the records.

The kings of Judah referred to in this synchronisation are:

• Manasseh (son of Hezekiah)
• Amon (son of Manasseh)
• Josiah (son of Amon)
• Jehoahaz (also known as Shallum; son of Josiah)
• Jehoiakim (known as Eliakim before he became king; son of Josiah)
• Jehoiachin (also known as Coniah or Jeconiah; son of Jehoiakim)
• Zedekiah (known as Mattaniah before he became king; son of Josiah)

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