In the three parallel accounts of the storm on the sea of Galilee, the disciples say according to Matthew (8:25):  “Lord save us, we perish;” according to Mark (4:38):  “Master, carest thou not that we perish?” according to Luke (8:24):  “Master, master, we perish.”  And the Lord answers according to Matthew (v. 26):  “Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?” according to Mark (v. 40):  “Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?” according to Luke (v. 25):  “Where is your faith?” On the variations in the words of the disciples Augustine well remarks (and the same remarks hold good of our Lord’s answer):  “The disciples have one and the same meaning in thus awaking the Lord and desiring salvation.  Nor is it necessary to inquire which of these addresses, rather than the others, contains the exact words spoken to him.  For whether they uttered one of the three, or other words which no one of the evangelists has mentioned, which yet have the same force in respect to the truth of the thought, what matters it?” Harmony of the Gospels 2.24, quoted by Alford on Matth. 8:25.

On the relation of the books of Chronicles to those of Kings and the difficulties connected with them, see Chap. 20, Nos. 21, 22.  On the relation of the four gospels to each other, see Chap. 29, Nos. 4-10.  We cannot here go into particulars.  It must suffice to indicate the general principle by which the harmonist must be guided.

6.  The external acquirements necessary to constitute the well-furnished expositor of God’s word—­the “scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven”—­have been already briefly noticed.  Chap. 33, No. 6.  Not only are the Scriptures in their original form locked up in dead languages which the interpreter must thoroughly master, but they are, so to speak, embedded in ancient history, chronology, and archaeology.

Illustrations of this point are so numerous that the only difficulty is in the selection.  The servitude of the Israelites under the Egyptians, their captivity in Babylon, their deliverance under Cyrus, and their subsequent history till the time of our Lord’s advent, connect themselves immediately, as all know, with the general history of the ancient heathen world.  But there are many illustrations of a more special character.  The difficulty of the position in which our Lord was placed by the ensnaring question of the Pharisees and Herodians respecting the lawfulness of paying tribute to Caesar, and the divine wisdom of his answer (Matt. 22:15-22:  Mark 12:13-17; Luke 20:20-26) cannot be perfectly understood without a knowledge, on the one hand, of the political condition and feeling of the Jews as subjected to the dominion of the Romans, which they thoroughly detested, and of which dominion the tribute money daily reminded them; and, on the other, of the hatred which both Pharisees and Herodians bore towards Christ, and their anxiety to find a pretext for accusing him to the people or before this same Roman government.