Chapter I.—On the Authority of the Gospels.
Chapter II.—On the Order of the Evangelists, and the Principles on Which They Wrote.
Chapter IV.—Of the Fact that John Undertook the Exposition of Christ’s Divinity.
Chapter IX.—Of Certain Persons Who Pretend that Christ Wrote Books on the Arts of Magic.
Chapter XIII.—Of the Question Why God Suffered the Jews to Be Reduced to Subjection.
Chapter XVII.—In Opposition to the Romans Who Rejected the God of Israel Alone.
Chapter XIX.—The Proof that This God is the True God.
Chapter XXII.—Of the Opinion Entertained by the Gentiles Regarding Our God.
Chapter XXIII.—Of the Follies Which the Pagans Have Indulged in Regarding Jupiter and Saturn.
Chapter XXVIII.—Of the Predicted Rejection of Idols.
Chapter XXXI.—The Fulfilment of the Prophecies Concerning Christ.
Chapter XXXIV.—Epilogue to the Preceding.
Chapter VI.—On the Position Given to the Preaching of John the Baptist in All the Four Evangelists.
Chapter VII.—Of the Two Herods.
Chapter XII.—Concerning the Words Ascribed to John by All the Four Evangelists Respectively.
Chapter XIII.—Of the Baptism of Jesus.
Chapter XIV.—Of the Words or the Voice that Came from Heaven Upon Him When He Had Been Baptized.
Chapter XVI.—Of the Temptation of Jesus.
Chapter XVII.—Of the Calling of the Apostles as They Were Fishing.
Chapter XVIII.—Of the Date of His Departure into Galilee.
Chapter XIX.—Of the Lengthened Sermon Which, According to Matthew, He Delivered on the Mount.
Chapter XXI.—Of the Order in Which the Narrative Concerning Peter’s Mother-In-Law is Introduced.
Chapter XXIX.—Of the Two Blind Men and the Dumb Demoniac Whose Stories are Related Only by Matthew.
Chapter XVII.—Of the Harmony of the Four Evangelists in Their Notices of the Draught of Vinegar.
Chapter X.—Of the Evangelist John, and the Distinction Between Him and the Other Three.
Chapter XXXII.—Of the Occasion on Which He Upbraided the Cities Because They Repented Not, Which Incident is Recorded by Luke as Well as by Matthew; And of the Question Regarding Matthew’s Harmony with Luke in the Matter of the Order.
79. Thereafter Matthew goes on as follows: “Then began He to upbraid the cities wherein most of His mighty works were done, because they repented not;” and so on, down to where we read, “It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom at the day of judgment, than for you.”497 Matt. xi. 20–24. This section likewise is given by Luke, who reports it also as an utterence from the lips of the Lord in connection with a certain continuous discourse which He delivered. This circumstance makes it the rather appear that Luke has recorded these words in the strict consecution in which they were spoken by the Lord, while Matthew has kept by the order of his own recollections. Or if it is supposed that Matthew’s words, “Then began He to upbraid the cities,” must be taken in such a way as to imply that the intention was to express, by the term “then,” the precise point of time at which the saying was uttered, and not to signify in a somewhat broader way the period at which many of these things were done and spoken, then I say that any one entertaining that idea may equally well believe these sentences to have been pronounced on two different occasions. For if it is the fact that even in one and the same evangelist some things are found which the Lord utters twice over, as is the case with this very Luke in the instance of the counsel not to take a scrip for the journey, and so with other things in like manner which we find to have been spoken by the Lord in two different places,498 Luke ix. 3, x. 4. [The view of Augustin is now generally accepted. The occasions when the sayings were uttered are distinguished in the accounts of Matthew and Luke —R.]—why should it seem strange if some other word of the Lord, which was originally uttered on two separate occasions, may happen also to be recorded by two several evangelists, each of whom gives it in the order in which it was actually spoken, and if thus the order seems to be different in the two, simply because the sentences were uttered both on the occasion noticed by the one, and on that referred to by the other?
CAPUT XXXII. Ubi exprobravit civitatibus quod non egerint poenitentiam, quod et Lucas dicit: ubi quaerendum est quemadmodum illi Matthaeus ipso ordine congruat.
79. Sequitur Matthaeus, et dicit: Tunc coepit exprobrare civitatibus, in quibus factae sunt plurimae virtutes ejus, quia non egissent poenitentiam, etc., usque ad illud ubi ait, Terrae Sodomorum remissius erit in die judicii, quam tibi (Matth. XI, 20-24). Etiam hoc commemorat Lucas (Luc. X, 12-15), continuato cuidam sermoni Domini etiam haec ex ipsius ore conjungens: unde magis videtur ipse hoc ordine illa commemorare, quo a Domino dicta sunt; Matthaeus autem suae recordationis ordinem tenuisse: aut si illud quod idem Matthaeus ait. Tunc coepit exprobrare civitatibus, sic accipiendum 1116 putatur, ut punctum ipsum temporis voluisse credatur exprimere in eo quod dictum est, Tunc, non autem ipsum tempus aliquanto latius quo haec multa gerebantur et dicebantur; quisquis hoc credit, credat etiam hoc esse bis dictum. Cum enim et apud unum Evangelistam inveniantur quaedam quae bis dixerit Dominus; sicut apud eumdem Lucam de non tollenda pera in via et similiter caeteris, duobus locis dictum a Domino invenitur (Luc. IX, 3, et X, 4): quid mirum si et aliquid aliud bis dictum singillatim a singulis dicitur eodem ordine quo dictum est, et ideo diversus ordo apparet in singulis, quia et tunc quando et ille, et tunc quando iste commemorat, dictum est?