demonstrating on behoof of those of less acute perception, that although one of these
evangelists may mention what the other omits, or omit what the other mentions, he does
not thereby make it in any sense difficult to accept the veracity of the account given by the
other. For when a single example [of this method of harmonizing] has been set before us,
whether in the way in which it has been presented by me, or in some other method in which
it may more satisfactorily be exhibited, every man can understand that, in all other similar
passages, what he has seen done here may be done again.
19. Accordingly, let us now study, as I have said, the harmony of the four evangelists in
the narratives regarding John the Baptist. Matthew proceeds in these terms: In those days
came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judæa.770 Mark has not used the
phrase “In those days,” because he has given no recital of any series of events at the head of
his Gospel immediately before this narrative, so that he might be understood to speak in
reference to the dates of such events under the terms, “In those days.”771 Luke, on the other
hand, with greater precision has defined those times of the preaching or baptism of John,
by means of the notes of the temporal power. For he says: Now, in the fifteenth year of the
reign of Tiberius Cæsar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judæa, and Herod being tetrarch
of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and
Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene, Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of
God came unto John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness.772 We ought not, however,
to understand that what was actually meant by Matthew when He said, “In those days,” was
simply the space of days literally limited to the specified period of these powers. On the
contrary, it is apparent that he intended the note of time which was conveyed in the phrase
“In those days,” to be taken to refer to a much longer period. For he first gives us the account
of the return of Christ from Egypt after the death of Herod,—an incident, indeed, which
took place at the time of His infancy or childhood, and with which, consequently, Luke’s
statement of what befell Him in the temple when He was twelve years of age is quite consist-
ent.773 Then, immediately after this narrative of the recall of the infant or boy out of Egypt,
Matthew continues thus in due order: “Now, in those days came John the Baptist.” And
thus under that phrase he certainly covers not merely the days of His childhood, but all the
days intervening between His nativity and this period at which John began to preach and
to baptize. At this period, moreover, Christ is found already to have attained to man’s estate;
770 Matt. iii. 1.
771 Mark i. 4.
772 Luke iii. 1–3.
773 Luke ii. 42–50.
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On the Position Given to the Preaching of John the Baptist in All the Four…