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original. Urquhart has given a table showing six different theories, in which Matthew,
Mark and Luke have respectively been "proved" to be the original, and he comments:
"In other words, criticism tells us (1) that each of the three was the original Gospel;
(2) that each of the three was derived from another; and (3) that each of the three was
derived from the two others!"
There has probably occurred to the reader, as it has to the writer, that a trite comment
of Euclid namely, "which is absurd", could be quoted very fittingly here.
Dr. E. A. Abbott wrote:
"It is well known that in many parts of the four gospels the same words and phrases
are curiously interlaced, in such a way as to suggest that the writers have borrowed either
from each other or from some common source."
This conclusion has stultified research and led its followers into the blind alley of self
contradiction.
John Urquhart replies:
"But why? Is the explanation not at least equally good that they have come from ONE
MIND, by which the similarity was preserved when no variation was called for?"
This is illuminating, it involves us in no contradictions, it accepts both the differences
and the agreements as coming from ONE AUTHOR, God the Holy Spirit, Who caused
the four-fold Gospel to be written in harmony with that Divine purpose which it was the
blessed object of the Son of His love to bring to glorious fruition.
The accompanying diagram may help the reader to visualize this fourfold gospel.